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Oil producers in the Persian Gulf are making plans to bypass the Strait of Hormuz with new pipelines and a new port after Iran has repeatedly attacked ships and blocked traffic. The idea is to minimize Tehran’s leverage on the waterway that once saw 20% of the world’s oil pass through it as the war stretches into its fifth month. Iran has already insisted that it will impose tolls on the strait, which could cost tens of billions of dollars. And in some cases, it is extracting millions of dollars of protection money per oil tanker. Two such projects are...

President Donald Trump took back his 20% fee on all cargo transported through the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, some twenty-four hours after first making the surprise announcement. In yet another yo-yo move of his tariff and trade policy, Trump claimed that he will replace the transit fee on the Strait with “trade and investment deals” for individual countries using the key energy hub. “Oil is flowing like never before, thanks to the awesome Power of the United States Military. A special salute to Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Caine, and Commander...

Donald Trump has reinstated his naval blockade of Iran, barring ships from entering or leaving their ports, days after Tehran attacked another commercial vessel and declared the Strait of Hormuz closed. The President also claimed the US would be paid a 20 percent tariff for securing safe passage for commercial vessels through the Persian Gulf. The details of Trump's demand were not immediately clear. Trump wrote on Truth Social that the US 'will be, from this point forward, known as "The Guardian of the Hormuz Strait."' 'The process and formation will begin immediately. Thank you for your attention to this...

Donald Trump says the US is reinstating its blockade of Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz, beginning "immediately" In a post on Truth Social, he says the US will be the "guardian" of the vital waterway and impose a 20% charge on all cargo shipped to pay for the cost of "safety and security" - how this will work in practice is unclear, writes our White House reporter

“We’ll become the guardian of the strait. Maybe we’ll become the guardian angel of the strait, and we should be reimbursed for that,” he said. “When we do that we’re going to be reimbursed because the other nations are very wealthy, they’re on our side, and we can’t be expected to do that for nothing unlike we had for many years.” “We guarded the strait for 50 years, and we never got paid for it,” he added. “We guarded it for nothing.” U.S. Central Command (Centcom) announced Sunday that it “completed a new wave of offensive strikes against Iran” and...

The U.S. is demanding that Iran make a public statement saying the Strait of Hormuz is open and that ships crossing the vital corridor won’t be attacked anymore, senior U.S. officials said Friday, adding that internal Tehran power struggles have made it difficult to reach and keep a deal. The U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe to reporters the state of play with Iran, said the resumption of strikes this week came after what they described as a rogue faction of Iranian hard-liners trying to sabotage the ceasefire between Tehran and Washington. It comes as U.S....

Iranian and Middle East diplomats held crisis talks in Oman Saturday to respond to the US demand that Tehran issue a public pledge to keep the Strait of Hormuz open – while reportedly weighing whether to propose a new travel route along the critical waterway. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was meeting with Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi in Muscat to discuss “safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz,” according to state media in Tehran. There were no indications top US officials were involved in the negotiations. Qatari officials, who have sometimes served in a mediating role between the warring...

The U.S. Treasury Department said Tuesday it will cancel its authorization of Iranian oil sales following a series of attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. The decision comes after Iran launched multiple attacks on tankers transiting the critical waterway this week, despite having promised safe passages to commercial ships under an interim deal to reopen Hormuz. The Trump administration had previously waived U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil as part of that agreement. The Office of Foreign Assets Control is ending the license that had allowed the production, delivery and sale of Iranian oil, which was set to run...

Three tankers were struck by projectiles Tuesday in the Strait of Hormuz, the British military said, in the latest attacks targeting vessels moving through the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf. One of the tankers was traveling off the coast of Oman and caught fire, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center. Iranian state television said the liquefied natural gas tanker came under attack after ignoring warnings but did not directly claim the assault. Two other tankers were also hit, including one that was struck by a drone. It was not immediately clear where they were at the...

President Donald Trump's plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz appears to be working, as transits show the strongest signs yet of returning to normal operations. Commercial shipping is steadily increasing under the 60-day U.S.-Iran ceasefire, easing fears of prolonged global oil supply disruptions and driving crude prices lower. New maritime data shows vessel traffic through the strategic waterway has more than quadrupled over the past week as shipping companies cautiously resume voyages through the Persian Gulf. According to maritime intelligence platform Signal, the number of traceable daily voyages entering and leaving the Gulf increased from just one or two...

The US and Iran on Sunday agreed to a weeklong de-escalation in the Strait of Hormuz, cooling tensions just in time for Fourth of July celebrations. The agreement aimed to keep things quiet for US and Iran technical teams negotiating indirectly with one another in Qatar, a US official confirmed to The Post. The deal has the added benefit of taking down the temperature as the US prepares for America’s 250th birthday and Iran holds funeral ceremonies for slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Friday, Saturday and Monday. The temporary calm comes even as Washington and Tehran remain locked in...

Iran launched a drone assault targeting Bahrain while a ship in the Strait of Hormuz separately came under attack Saturday in Tehran's likely response to overnight airstrikes by the United States. The U.S. had launched airstrikes overnight in response to an Iranian drone attack on a container ship trying to leave the strait Thursday, continuing a string of attacks that have shaken the war's uneasy ceasefire. Iran has insisted that ships must obey its orders and warned it will start charging fees for transit through the strait. However, ships have been increasingly trying to leave the Gulf in recent days....

The Islamic Republic of Iran has announced that they have closed the Strait of Hormuz. The reality on the ground shows that ships continue to travel through the waterway unimpeded, with U.S. naval assets in the region confirming that the Strait is completely open.Despite the announced closure of the Strait of Hormuz by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Navy (IRGC-N), vessel traffic appears to be continuing, with several vessels using both the Iranian and U.S. announced traffic separation schemes. pic.twitter.com/05fjVSSaYE— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) June 20, 2026🚨 JUST NOW: Iran caught LYING that they "closed" the Strait of Hormuz againCENTCOM: "Commercial ship...

Iran’s New "Insurance" Rule: Controlling the Strait of Hormuz

(NewsNation) — Iran said Saturday it had closed the Strait of Hormuz again while sending a delegation to Switzerland for renewed talks with the United States, raising tensions even as diplomacy resumes. The U.S. disputed Iran’s announcement on the strait. “Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz. Traffic continues to flow, and U.S. forces are monitoring the situation to ensure this remains the case,” said Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson for U.S. Central Command. The military said that 55 merchant ships transited Saturday with more than 17 million barrels of oil. President Donald Trump, in response, threatened to impose...

Iran's top joint military command, ​Khatam al-Anbiya Central ‌Headquarters, said on Saturday that the Strait ​of Hormuz would ​be closed to vessel ⁠traffic, citing ​alleged violations of a ​ceasefire agreement by the U.S. and Israel, Iran's ​Mehr state ​news agency reported. It said that ‌the ⁠closure was the "first step" in response to what it ​described ​as ⁠breaches of commitments and warned ​that further measures ​would ⁠be taken if "aggression" continued.

Tales of Deceptive PR, Chapter 26: About fifteen years ago, I worked in-house for a billionaire who had just bought his own private club in Tampa Bay. The bayside property had been in and out of bankruptcy, and the billionaire hoped to rebrand it as exclusive, ultra-elite, and high-end.The trouble was that the club had embarrassingly low, dirt-cheap membership rates because it was so desperate for members. It directly undercut our desired branding.So I had the club create a brand-spanking-new “international corporate” membership category that cost foreign businesses $1 million a year. Nobody ever paid for an “international corporate” membership,...

The old saying is a lie goes around the world before the truth gets its boots on. When we're discussing the Islamic Republic of Iran regime, or what's left of it, they certainly do not need a head start. They lie like you and I breathe. As with any good rollercoaster, this past weekend provided more unexpected twists and turns. And even though Donald Trump claims we're headed back to the station with a deal, it's hard to see it around the blind corner in front of us. George W. Bush's Secretary of Defense, the Late Donald Rumsfeld, used to...

President Donald Trump declared an end to his campaign against Iran’s leaders with an exhortation on Sunday: “Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!” With the Iranian regime still in place, he was celebrating a resumption of the way the world was on Feb. 27, the day before the United States and Israel attacked Iran. A return to a version of the status quo was a far cry from the original aims of a war effort that kicked off with a vow to come to the aid of the Iranian protesters who had taken to their...

The U.S. military will attack Iran “VERY HARD TONIGHT,” and will soon take over the country’s “oil infrastructure points,” President Donald Trump said Thursday. An operation to “assume total control” of Iran’s oil and gas markets and infrastructure, including taking Kharg Island, will occur “at some point in the not too distant future,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.