Military actions and new maritime restrictions in the Middle East have driven international oil prices to a one-month high, with Brent crude rising above $86 a barrel on Tuesday. The price increase follows an announcement from President Trump that the U.S. is reinstating a naval blockade of Iranian ports and will impose a 20% security fee on all commercial cargo passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The U.S. military conducted a third consecutive night of airstrikes against Iranian targets on Monday. According to U.S. Central Command, the five-hour operation utilized combat sea drones for the first time to target a naval base, alongside strikes on drone and missile sites in the port cities of Bandar Abbas and Bushehr.
Local officials in Bushehr, home to Iran’s civilian nuclear power plant, reported that four projectiles hit the city.
In response to the U.S. actions, Iran launched retaliatory strikes across the region. The United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Defense confirmed that Iranian cruise missiles struck two oil tankers, the MT Al Bahiyah and MT Mombasa, near the coast of Oman. The Ministry of External Affairs in India confirmed that one Indian national was killed and 10 others were injured in the tanker attacks.
“We strongly condemn these attacks and acts of violence targeting seafarers and disrupting free and safe navigation through international waterways like the Strait of Hormuz,” the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement. India has summoned an Iranian diplomat to lodge a formal protest.
Air defense sirens sounded for a third time in Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, as authorities warned residents to take shelter amid Iranian missile fire. Regional strikes also targeted locations in Jordan.
President Trump defended the newly announced maritime security fees during a television interview. “They can make trouble, they can do things that are not nice, but we control it,” Trump said, stating that the U.S. would act as a “guardian angel” for the shipping lane and collect the 20% fee to reimburse military costs. He added, “We’re going to let everyone get through, except if you’re doing business with Iran.”
The U.S. maintains that the strait remains open via a southern route along the coast of Oman. However, Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority stated that it had closed the waterway over the weekend due to U.S. provocations. The authority claimed that prior to the closure, more than 200 foreign commercial vessels had coordinated transit through the northern route under a prior memorandum of understanding.
The proposed U.S. transit fees drew immediate criticism from the commercial shipping sector. German logistics giant Hapag-Lloyd rejected the policy, stating that the Strait of Hormuz consists of international waters rather than man-made infrastructure.
“It would be fundamentally wrong to charge tolls for passage through international waters,” a spokesperson for Hapag-Lloyd said. “Tolls for infrastructure such as the Suez Canal or Panama Canal are different, because they reflect major infrastructure investments. That is not the case in the Strait of Hormuz.”
Oman’s Foreign Ministry announced it is communicating with all involved parties to re-establish unhindered transit through the waterway, which handles roughly 20% of global oil shipments.
“Oman continues its transparent and neutral cooperation with all parties to restore freedom of navigation in the Strait, in full compliance with international law,” the Omani ministry stated, adding that it remains committed to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Simultaneously, diplomatic discussions continue in Rome regarding the conflict in Lebanon. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar announced that Israel is prepared to move forward with a late-June agreement to withdraw troops from two designated “pilot zones” in southern Lebanon, allowing Lebanese government forces to assume control.
“We are ready to move forward implementing these two pilot zones,” Saar told reporters in Jerusalem. “I hope and tend to believe that this round of discussions in Rome will promote it.”
The withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon remains a primary demand from Iran in broader regional negotiations. However, Israel maintains it will not fully withdraw its forces from the border region until Hezbollah disarms, a condition the militant group has rejected.
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