The US announced a new round of attacks against Iran on Monday, just hours after the president took office Donald Trump said that Washington is “reintroducing” a blockade against Iran. Strait of Hormuz and, in an apparent reversal of policy, will charge other ships for safe passage.
All this is happening as Iran insists that it actually controls the critical waterway and a new exchange of fire threatens a return to total war.
US Central Command announced on social media that the US military had begun another round of attacks against Iran.
“These attacks will continue to impose heavy costs on Iranian forces and impact their ability to attack innocent civilians and commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz,” the U.S. military said.
Shortly after the military announced the new attacks, Trump called it “another major attack.”
“We’re hitting them very hard. And it’s going to continue, and we’ll see what happens,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “We’re eliminating all of their offensive capability and controlling the strait. We’re dismantling the blockade.”
Trump also provided new details about his administration’s about-face, suggesting it will impose tolls on ships passing through the strait after previously suggesting it would not.
“We are protecting a very rich part of the world,” he said. “We’re spending money. So what we’ve done is we’re getting reimbursed for the protection.”
It’s a change in U.S. policy, which previously said the strait should remain open to all without tariffs – as was the case before the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran on Feb. 28. Any attempt by the US or Iran to impose fees would violate global norms impair freedom of navigation and increase tensions, which are likely to lead to further consequences economic disruption far beyond the region.
The price of a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose 7.8% to $81.92 a barrel on Mondaystill well below the nearly $120 reached at the height of the war.
Trump says Iran failed a test
Earlier, Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that the agreement reached last month was “designed to test Iran,” adding: “When you’re dealing with scum, it doesn’t mean much.”
Trump said he wondered why the U.S. entered into a deal to create a ceasefire with Iran instead of committing to a full deal first. Trump declared last week that the ceasefire was “over.”
“You failed the test,” the president said.
The exchange of fire in recent days, triggered by Iranian attacks on ships, had already raised further doubts about the situation interim peace agreement. Washington had lifted a blockade imposed in mid-April under that agreement, which also called for the full reopening of the strait.
“We are reinstating the IRANIAN BLOCKADE,” Trump said on social media. “All other countries will use the strait fairly and openly.”
The president said the U.S. would be “reimbursed” 20% of the value of the cargo to cover “all costs necessary to ensure security.”
The U.S. military said it would resume its blockade of Iranian ports at 4 p.m. EDT on Tuesday.
The battle for the strait escalates
Iran maintains it has the right to regulate traffic through the strait and possibly impose fees under the interim peace deal. The US has denied this.
Iran vowed on Monday to oppose any US interference in the strait. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi mocked Trump on social media and used his support for tolls to legitimize Iran’s position.
“POTUS is absolutely right. Those who ensure the safe passage of merchant ships through the Strait of Hormuz should be compensated for that service,” Araghchi wrote
The International Maritime Organization, the United Nations agency that oversees international shipping, said it was waiting to learn more about Trump’s proposal but continued to oppose tolls for passage through international waterways.
“There is no legal basis for introducing mandatory tolls for passage through a strait alone,” it said in a statement.
The US had spoken out against charging fees in the strait
At a meeting with Gulf leaders late last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio strongly opposed Iran charging fees for transit through the strait.
“This is an international waterway. There is no country on earth that supports having to pay money to pass through the straits,” Rubio told reporters in Bahrain on June 25.
Rubio also said that there is “no support among the Gulf states for any kind of tolls or fees or anything that charges for the use of international waters. The president has made it clear that that will not happen.”
A fifth of the world’s oil and gas flowed through the strait before Iran effectively closed it at the start of the war, driving up global prices for energy, fertilizer and other goods. Traffic had increased following last month’s agreement but remained well below prewar levels.
The American military has tried to establish a route through the strait along the coast of Oman, which is outside Iranian control. Iran has attacked ships on this route, claiming the US is violating the interim peace deal. In response, the US attacked Iran, prompting Iranian attacks on US-allied Arab states.
US strikes as allied Arab states report wave of attacks
The U.S. military said it struck dozens of sites on Monday, including air defense systems, radar sites, missile and drone equipment and small boats, in response to an Iranian attack on a container ship the day before. The US said it used drone ships for the first time on Sunday to attack an Iranian ship maintenance facility and a submarine.
Missile alarm sirens sounded three times Monday in Bahrain, home of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet. There was no immediate news of the damage.
Separately, the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry said its consulate in Iraq had been attacked. No one was immediately blamed for the attack or any damage or casualties were disclosed.
The oil-rich kingdom – home to several US military bases – also condemned Iran and “its factions and militias loyal to it in Iraq” for attacking “multiple border points” and a maritime oil drilling platform owned by the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation.
In Jordan, the kingdom’s military said it shot down four Iranian missiles in an incident that “did not result in any casualties or property damage.” Jordan also hosts US military forces and aircraft.
According to state news agency IRNA, authorities in Iran reported attacks in Hormozgan, Khuzestan and Markazi provinces and said at least two people were killed. Semi-official Iranian media also reported attacks in the eastern province of Sistan and Balochistan, which lies on the coast of the Gulf of Oman.
Iran blames the US for the chaos in the region
These attacks on Iran raised the possibility that Gulf Arab states would retaliate. There was unclaimed attacks on Iran on Thursday.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei blamed Washington for the chaos in the region. He said Iran would not agree to visits by the International Atomic Energy Agency to nuclear facilities that the United States bombed in 2025. Tehran’s supplies are stored there highly enriched uranium He is believed to be buried.
Trump suggested last week that the interim wartime deal was “over” and that the US had ended waivers that allowed Iran to sell crude oil on the open market in US dollars. But mediators including Pakistan, Qatar and Egypt did further efforts to reach a final agreement to end the war.
Iran and the United States are almost halfway through the 60-day deadline in which they were supposed to negotiate such an agreement, which would also address Iran’s controversial nuclear program.