Hormuz | Pakistan

US awaits Iran, Oman deal on Strait of Hormuz

• Says Oman, other ‘brotherly states’ leading different aspects of diplomacy • Insists Islamabad is focused on settlement rather than ‘individual symptoms of crisis’ • Pakistan examining TORs, operational modalities of Saudi-led maritime coalition • Govt will decide on Gaza stabilisation force after formal proposal ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Thursday insisted that Pakistan remained actively engaged in efforts to defuse the Strait of Hormuz stand-off, while also examining the terms of reference and operational modalities of a newly announced Saudi-led multinational maritime coalition aimed at protecting shipping routes in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The Foreign Office acknowledged that different regional partners, particularly Oman, were taking the lead on different aspects of the diplomatic process. It portrayed Islamabad’s role as part of a coordinated effort by “brotherly states” to steer the crisis back towards the framework established under the Islamabad Memorandum o...

• Tanker reports fresh explosions in strait; US naval blockade remains in place • US imports of Middle East crude set to cross 0.6m barrels per day • Vance, Ghalibaf trade barbs over ‘messy negotiations’ WASHINGTON / TEH­RAN: Despite an understanding between Iran and Oman, fresh security incidents in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday highlighted the continued risks for regional shipping in the critical waterway. While the agreement would be a step towards reopening the key energy route, Iranian media stressed that any easing still hinged on Washington ending its own naval blockade of Iran’s ports. On Thursday, Centcom said it continued to enforce the naval blockade of Iran, redirecting 49 commercial vessels, disabling two, and boarding two. Highlighting the risks to ships, the captain of an oil tanker reported hearing two explosions while transiting the strait, nine nautical miles southeast of Kumzar in Oman, Britain’s maritime security agency said on Wednesday. “The Master of a tanker has reported hearing two...

United States President Donald Trump said a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz could come as soon as Wednesday but warned Iran it would get “hit very hard” if negotiations fell through. Transit of the waterway, a key conduit for global oil and gas supplies, has been a sticking point in talks and led to renewed fighting following an April ceasefire. Iran has tightened its grip on Hormuz and wants to control the strait and charge tolls — powers it did not exercise before the war began on February 28. Trump said on Tuesday a deal with Iran to reopen Hormuz could happen “tomorrow or the next day,” telling reporters in California that negotiators “had a very good day”. Earlier, he struck a more threatening tone. “The strait is going to be open very soon, or they’re going to get hit very hard — and then the strait’s going to be open,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News. “All you can do is fight your way out.” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC earlier “there is a chance we may have a deal” by Wedn...

Oil prices tumbled more than $4 a barrel on Monday after US President Donald Trump held off on a fresh attack on Iran, seeking to reach a quick deal that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude futures slid $4.49, or 5.11 per cent, to $83.44 by 0408 GMT while US West Texas Intermediate crude was at $79.77 a barrel, down $4.90, or 5.79pc. Both contracts jumped more than 20pc last month after fighting between the US and Iran resumed and as attacks on several tankers around Oman heightened security concerns, deterring shippers from entering the Gulf to load oil. In a sign of de-escalation, Trump said late on Saturday on his Truth Social platform that Iran and other Middle Eastern countries had asked for time to complete a deal that would lead to “the Immediate, Complete and Total” reopening of the vital strait and “an end to Iran’s nuclear threat”. IG market analyst Tony Sycamore says, “The bigger focus is whether this week turns into a rinse and repeat of last week with hopes of a deal collapsing as Iran...

IRAN is seeking to recalibrate its control over the Strait of Hormuz by regulating maritime traffic and establishing a ‘smart management’ system that includes passage fees for vessels traversing the strait. The principal treaty governing these matters is the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which establishes the legal framework applicable to passage through international straits. It recognises two principal regimes: innocent passage and transit passage. Under UNCLOS, innocent passage is defined as passage that is “not prejudicial to the peace, good order, or security of the coastal State”. Activities that render passage non-innocent, expressly include any threat or use of force against the sovereignty, territorial integrity, or political independence of the coastal state, or in any other manner in violation of the principles of international law embodied in the Charter of the United Nations. Nevertheless, warships enjoy a customary right to innocent passage through straits used in int...

The battle for Hormuz, the growing possibility of greater Iranian influence on the critical passageway, question marks about the reliability and security of crude supplies from the Middle East, and the subsequent quest to divert oil shipments away from the crucial shipping chokepoint are reshaping global energy flows. Efforts are underway to decouple and desensitise global crude markets to events in the Strait of Hormuz. Several new pipelines projected to carry oil from the Middle East to markets bypassing the strait are on the drawing board. In a note released a couple of weeks ago, analysts at Goldman Sachs estimated that seven new pipelines are currently under discussion in the oil-rich Middle East. Once operational, possibly by the end of 2028, these pipelines could carry roughly 14 million barrels per day (bpd). This is about 60 per cent of the oil that was being shipped through the strait, Goldman estimated. Before the war, roughly 23m bpd were passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Efforts to bypass Hor...

A US missile struck the Iranian island of Larak on Wednesday, the Tasnim news agency reported, in the latest attack to target the Islamic republic’s islands in and around the Strait of Hormuz. The islands have been hit multiple times as the two sides fight over the strategic waterway, which Iran has sealed following the collapse of a preliminary deal aimed at ending the war. Here AFP looks at the significance of the Iranian islands in the strait and the nearby Gulf: Larak This small island occupies a particularly strategic position at the narrowest point of the Strait of Hormuz, the key shipping route that Iran has choked shut. A site for Iranian oil exports since 1987, it also hosts a military base. It came to prominence recently as “Tehran’s tollbooth” — a stopping-off point for the handful of vessels that Iran approved to exit or enter the Gulf during its initial blockade earlier in the war. Ships that used this route had to pay a substantial fee, according to maritime data company Lloyd’s List Intelligenc...

US forces hit Iran for a ninth consecutive day on Monday as concerns grew over shipping through the Strait of Hormuz after Iran said two oil tankers had exploded and been immobilised, adding that the waterway would remain unsafe as long as US “aggression” in the region continued. In a statement, US Central Command said it targeted “Iranian military command centres, air defense and coastal surveillance sites, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and communications networks to further diminish Iran’s ability to attack commercial vessels and civilian mariners transiting the Strait of Hormuz”. The strikes are part of an escalating cycle of attacks between the US and Iran after an interim ceasefire agreement signed a month ago unravelled, deepening a struggle for control over the Strait of Hormuz that has disrupted energy supplies and stoked fears of global inflation. Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency, citing its own reporters, said US missiles struck several Iranian cities early on Monday....

Multiple X users have been sharing a video on the social media platform since July 14, claiming that it shows the Iranian Navy destroying a ship in the Strait of Hormuz amid renewed hostilities in the Middle East. However, the video is old and shows the US Navy destroying an Iranian Soleimani-class corvette vessel in the Persian Gulf. Traffic in the Strait of Hormuz was disrupted once again after Iranian forces shut down the vital maritime route after exchanging heavy missile and drone assaults with US forces, with multiple US facilities in the Gulf states coming under fire on July 12, 2026. The United States military has concluded a fourth consecutive night of strikes against Iran, as Washington and Tehran both stake claims for control of the Strait of Hormuz. On July 14, a pro-Iranian account, based on its display profile and past posts, shared a video on X, showing a ship engulfed in flames in the sea, claiming to have been attacked by the Iranian Navy in the Strait of Hormuz. The post was captioned: “This...

Viral video is old, showing a US Navy strike on an Iranian Soleimani-class corvette, not Hormuz

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) threatened to close “all other export corridors that benefit the US and its allies”, Iranian media reported on Wednesday, after Tehran shut the Strait of Hormuz and the US reimposed a naval blockade of Iranian ports. The IRGC said the renewed US blockade had cut off oil and gas exports to the world, including “America’s economic rivals”, and warned that routes serving US and allied interests could also be shut, Iran’s state news agency, IRNA, reported on Wednesday. “Regional energy exports are either shared by all or denied to all,” the IRGC said in its statement. It also said that the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed until “the end of America’s evils”. The vital Strait of Hormuz, which served as the passage for one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas supply daily during peacetime, is now at the centre of a flare-up in the US-Israeli war on Iran that has rattled the Middle East and pushed up global energy prices. Analysts have said Iran has also been signalling...

US President Donald Trump stepped back from a proposal to charge a 20 per cent transit fee to guard the vital Strait of Hormuz waterway as part of the conflict with Iran, saying on Tuesday he would instead seek investment deals with Gulf states. US forces had carried out waves of attacks for the third night in a row after Tehran said it had closed the strait, prompting Trump on Monday to reinstate a blockade of Iranian shipping and propose the fee. But just a little under five hours before the fee had been due to come into effect at 2000 GMT, Trump said the strait was open to all shipping traffic except that of Iran. “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States,” he said in a post on Truth Social. Iran reports new strikes, sirens in Kuwait The governor’s office of Iran’s Qeshm Island, on the Strait of Hormuz, said it was ...

Oil prices surged more than three per cent on Monday after renewed military strikes between the United States and Iran reignited concerns over energy shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude futures were up $2.47, or 3.25pc, to $78.48 at 4:45pm PKT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude was up $2.35, or 3.29pc, to $73.76 a barrel. “The focus will remain on the number of inbound tankers as a lower number could impact production, so currently we see a risk premium but as well a disruption risk supporting prices,” said UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo. Fresh US and Iranian strikes over the weekend fueled fears of a renewed escalation. Tehran targeted US facilities across the Gulf on Sunday and said it had again closed the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Monday they had attacked US military bases in Kuwait and Bahrain. Some 20pc of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas transited the strait before the war began at the end of February. “Shipping operators are adopting a cautious a...

Oil prices surged over 4 per cent on Monday as energy shipments via the Strait of Hormuz remained under threat, with the US and Iran announcing renewed military strikes. Brent crude futures climbed $3.10, or 4.08pc, to $79.11 by 0325 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude rose $2.95, or 4.11pc, to $74.36 a barrel. US forces completed another wave of strikes against Iran on Monday, with the Centcom saying it hit dozens of targets at multiple locations with precision munitions. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Monday they attacked US military bases in Kuwait and Bahrain. US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the Strait of Hormuz was open to commercial traffic, although Iran declared earlier that it had closed the strait after a vessel had travelled on an unapproved route and was struck. Some 20pc of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas transited the strait before the war began at the end of February. Six vessels transited the strait on Sunday, ship-tracking data from Kpler showed, the lowes...

The United States struck Iran on Monday for a second day running, drawing Tehran’s reprisals against US allies in the Gulf as the foes battle over the status of the strategic Strait of Hormuz. The flare-up is the latest to undermine an interim agreement between Washington and Tehran aimed at ending their war, which has caused global economic shockwaves since it began in late February. The latest salvo by US forces began at 2100 GMT on Sunday, Central Command (Centcom) said on X. The fresh strikes came less than 24 hours after a previous wave in which the US Centcom said 140 Iranian military targets were hit. In a subsequent post, Centcom said it had completed a new wave of “offensive strikes” against Iran, hitting “dozens of targets at multiple locations with precision munitions to degrade Iran’s ability to continue attacking international shipping flowing through the Strait of Hormuz”. “Centcom forces struck Iranian military air-defence systems, coastal radar sites, missile and drone capabilities, and small ...

The US military launched fresh strikes on Iran after the latter struck a container ship on Sunday, while Tehran said it had again closed the Strait of Hormuz and escalated attacks on US facilities in states across the Gulf. The strikes were the latest in a cycle of attacks and counter-attacks as Iran seeks to assert control over shipping through the strait. However, the latest barrage marked a sharp escalation in pace and range. The attacks extended to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which had not been targeted since early May, and Qatar, a mediator in ceasefire talks that had not come under attack since April. Iran said it closed the strait after firing a warning ​shot that struck a vessel travelling on an “unauthorised route”. It warned that any retaliation over the incident would be met with a “severe response”. Iran later said it had disabled a second vessel. India said one of its nationals was missing after an attack on the container ship GFS Galaxy off the coast of Oman earlier on Sunday. Oman said 23 c...

The US military launched fresh strikes on Iran after the latter struck a container ship on Sunday, while Tehran said it had again closed the Strait of Hormuz and escalated attacks on US facilities in states across the Gulf. The strikes were the latest in a cycle of attacks and counter-attacks as Iran seeks to assert control over shipping through the strait. However, the latest barrage marked a sharp escalation in pace and range. The attacks extended to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which had not been targeted since early May, and Qatar, a mediator in ceasefire talks that had not come under attack since April. Iran said it closed the strait after firing a warning ​shot that struck a vessel travelling on an “unauthorised route”. It warned that any retaliation over the incident would be met with a “severe response”. Iran later said it had disabled a second vessel. India said one of its nationals was missing after an attack on the container ship GFS Galaxy off the coast of Oman earlier on Sunday. Oman said 23 c...

The US military launched fresh strikes on Iran after the latter struck a container ship on Sunday ‌while Tehran said it had again closed the Strait of Hormuz and escalated attacks on US facilities in states across the Gulf. A series of attacks between the US and Iran over the past several days led President Donald Trump to declare the end of a ceasefire meant to halt the war on Iran that the US and Israel began on February 28, though Trump has left the door open to continued negotiations. Iran said it closed the strait after firing a warning ​shot that struck a vessel travelling on an unapproved route. It warned that any retaliation over the incident would be met with a “severe response.” The US Central Command, however, claimed commercial ​vessels continue to transit through the waterway that carried one-fifth of the world’s oil and LNG shipments before the war. The Central Command said US forces hit 140 Iranian military targets on Saturday, out of more than 300 during three nights of strikes “to degrade Ira...

The US military said it launched another round of strikes on Iran — the third in a week — after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps struck a container ship travelling through the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday. Iranian state media has reported explosions in a number of port cities after the strikes. A series of attacks between the US and Iran over the past several days led President Donald Trump to declare the end of a ceasefire meant to halt the war on Iran that the US and Israel began on February 28, though Trump has left the door open to continued negotiations. Iran said it closed the vital Strait of Hormuz after firing a warning shot that struck a vessel travelling on an unapproved route. It warned that any retaliation over the incident would be met with a “severe response.” US Central Command identified the vessel as the M/V GFS Galaxy, a Cyprus-flagged container ship, saying it suffered significant engine-room damage and that a civilian crew member was missing. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations...