Iran threatens further shipping disruptions after closing the Strait of Hormuz amid renewed US pressure.
Analysts warn Iran-linked Houthis could target the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and affect global trade routes.
US strikes and Trump’s energy threats deepen tensions over regional security and oil supplies.
Iran has threatened to shut additional export routes after closing the Strait of Hormuz, as the United States reimposed a naval blockade of Iranian ports and carried out fresh strikes in the region.
The threat to global shipping comes as concerns grow over disruption to energy supplies, with analysts warning that Iran may use its Houthi allies in Yemen to shut the Bab el-Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea. Analysts have warned that any disruption to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait could affect another major shipping route after Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has threatened to close “all other export corridors that benefit the U.S. and its allies”, Iranian media reported, after Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz and the US reimposed a naval blockade of Iranian ports.
“Regional energy exports are either shared by all, or denied to all,” the IRGC said in a statement carried by Iran’s IRNA state news agency on Wednesday.
Analysts have said Iran has been signalling it may use its Houthi allies in Yemen to shut the Bab el-Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea, opening a new front against Washington and putting two of the world’s vital energy arteries at risk.
The narrow gateway links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, through which Saudi oil exports and a substantial share of global shipping pass. A senior Houthi official warned on Monday that the group was prepared to close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait — a move he said could send oil prices soaring to $200 a barrel — if Saudi Arabia continued to attack Yemen, according to a report on Iran’s Press TV website.
Houthi forces fired missiles at Saudi Arabia after accusing the kingdom of bombing an airport under their control on Monday, breaking a four-year truce in the conflict between the kingdom and the Iran-aligned group.
The latest threat to global shipping came a day after the US military said it began a fresh round of strikes ‘to continue degrading Iranian capabilities used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.’ Reuters reported that the United States said Iran had attacked seven commercial ships over the last week, leading to nearly a dozen crew members being killed, missing or injured.
The US military said late on Tuesday that it hit dozens of military targets near the Strait of Hormuz and Iranian coastal areas. The wave of strikes lasted seven hours, the US Central Command said in a statement.
Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said at least 30 civilians had been killed in recent days due to the US strikes on southern Iran, state media reported on Wednesday.
Iran’s army said at least seven active-duty and conscript personnel were killed in overnight US strikes on the Bampur military base in the country’s southeast.
The IRGC said on Wednesday that the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed until what it described as “the end of America’s evils”. Before the war began in February, about a fifth of global oil and gas shipments passed through Hormuz each day.
The Guards said they had targeted what they described as command-and-control, logistics, fuel and military equipment facilities belonging to the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, in response to the latest US strikes in the Strait of Hormuz.
They also said they had set fire to and destroyed what they described as a US logistics facility in Kuwait’s Mina Abdullah and that their air force had struck what they described as a US base at Azraq in Jordan, targeting aircraft hangars. They said some of the US attacks had been launched from bases on Jordanian territory.
Earlier on Wednesday, Kuwait’s state news agency reported that a fire was brought under control at a site targeted in Iranian attacks. It was not immediately clear whether the fire was at the same site referred to in the IRGC statement.
Jordan’s air defence intercepted and shot down three ballistic missiles that entered the country’s airspace from Iranian territory early on Wednesday.
The hostilities between Iran and the US re-ignited last week, fraying an already fragile truce reached in June after several months of fighting that has killed thousands.
Trump threatens energy targets
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to hit Iranian power plants and bridges next week unless Tehran resumed negotiations.
“I'll save the energy targets for last, but ultimately we'll hit energy targets,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News’ Trey Yingst.
US negotiators had been in touch with their Iranian counterparts to tell them “you better make a deal”, Trump added.
As tensions escalated, Trump on Monday floated the idea of a 20% fee on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which drew sharp criticism from the UN shipping agency and others. On Tuesday, he scrapped the idea and said, without providing details, that he would instead seek investment deals with Gulf states.
Oil prices rose on Wednesday, after closing up 2% to a one-month high on Tuesday, as the latest attacks deepened a supply disruption in the Strait of Hormuz.
Reuters reported that Brent closed for the second straight session at its highest since June 12 and West Texas Intermediate at its highest since June 15. Both contracts rose further in early Wednesday trading.
(With inputs from Reuters)
