Iran declares the Strait of Hormuz closed after US strikes on its ports
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps declared the Strait of Hormuz closed after the United States carried out its third round of strikes this week against targets on Iranian soil. US Central Command said the strikes were a response to an Iranian attack on a Cyprus-flagged container ship in the waterway.
Iranian state media reported explosions in the port cities of Bandar Abbas, Sirik, Chabahar, Bandar-e Deyr and Asaluyeh. Bandar Abbas and Asaluyeh are central to Iran’s oil and gas exports, and hitting them signals that Washington is now targeting Iranian economic infrastructure rather than only military sites.
The move marks a sharp escalation from earlier in the week, when the US was pressing Tehran to publicly affirm the strait was open and mediators were still working to hold a fragile arrangement together. A formal Iranian declaration that the strait is closed — even if enforcement is partial — raises the risk to the roughly one-fifth of the world’s seaborne oil that passes through the chokepoint, and shipping through the corridor had already thinned after the recent exchanges of fire. Whether Iran can or will physically block traffic is the immediate question for energy markets and for the Gulf states whose exports depend on the passage.