IRANBack to boiling point: Oil rises as conflict resumes in the Middle East
The war is back on. Iran said today it had struck 85 U.S. sites in Bahrain and Kuwait, in the latest escalation of a fast-developing situation in the Gulf.
Those strikes came after U.S. forces struck targets in Iranian coastal areas yesterday and overnight. And that came after Iran fired on three tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran believed had not complied with its control of the passage. Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia all condemned Iran for harassing their ships. The U.S. reinstated sanctions on Iranian oil sales. Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said the U.S. was in "flagrant violation" of the memorandum of understanding. Live coverage from the BBC here.
The price of Brent crude oil spiked up from $72 per barrel yesterday to $78 this morning.
Context: The ceasefire isn’t totally dead, yet. Both the U.S. and Iran will be reluctant to return to full-scale warfare. The fact that the U.S. struck Qeshm Island, Bandar Abbas, and Sirik—as opposed to Tehran or the regime’s nuclear development sites—is a signal that the Pentagon believes this round of fighting can be limited, if Iran allows traffic in the Strait to resume.
