The United States has reinstated its blockade of Iranian ports following Iran's attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, threatening to plunge the region back into full-scale war as the interim agreement collapses.
Three children play in the water at the Strait of Hormuz while in the background a column of smoke from an explosion rises near Bandar Abbas, Iran, on Monday, July 13, 2026.
The U.S. military said on Wednesday that it has reinstated its blockade of Iranian ports in response to Tehran's attacks on vessels attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, prompting fresh attacks against nations hosting U.S. forces as the interim agreement to end the war unravels further. Days of retaliatory attacks by Iran-and both nations' attempts to control the maritime route through which a fifth of the world's crude oil and natural gas flows in peacetime-threaten to push the region back into all-out war.
The United States first imposed the blockade in mid-April and then lifted it in mid-June, a day after signing an interim agreement that set a 60-day timeline for negotiations on issues such as Iran's nuclear program, but the talks have stalled and fighting around the Strait of Hormuz has intensified. Iran's Revolutionary Guard threatened on Wednesday to halt all energy exports from the Middle East because of the blockade.
When U.S. President Donald Trump announced the return of the blockade on Monday, he also said he would impose a 20% tariff on vessels passing through the strait. But he abandoned the plan to collect tolls hours before resuming the blockade, arguing that U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf requested it. The United States carried out another wave of attacks while reinstating the blockade, U.S. Central Command said on Wednesday.
Missile alerts were issued in Bahrain and Kuwait on Wednesday morning as they faced Iranian fire, something that has become a daily occurrence, further straining a ceasefire in the war. Admiral Brad Cooper, who leads U.S. Central Command, said in a statement that Iran had launched dozens of missiles and drones against Arab countries in the Persian Gulf.
'U.S. forces are holding Iran accountable for unjustified aggression that continues to endanger innocent lives,' Cooper said. There are at least 19 U.S. warships in the Arabian Sea, including two aircraft carriers and an amphibious assault ship with more than 1,000 Marines on board. U.S. Central Command said on social media that there are also 'hundreds of military aircraft operating across the Middle East.
' When the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, Tehran shut down the passage by attacking and threatening ships. That caused the price of oil, fertilizers, and other goods to skyrocket. Iran has more recently attacked vessels moving through the strait in a route near Oman supervised by the U.S. military that is outside Tehran's control, triggering the most recent attacks.
The United States has threatened to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by force, but experts say that will require a much larger navy, or even tens of thousands of ground troops. Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, criticized U.S. attacks on his country.
'The United States is the aggressor, not the victim,' the ambassador wrote to the leader of the world body, according to the state news agency IRNA. Trump said on Tuesday that 'kings and emirs' from the region called him and suggested an arrangement alternative to charging tolls on ships for passing through the Strait of Hormuz, as Trump had proposed the day before.
'They said: We would love to do it a different way. We would love to invest thousands and billions of dollars in the United States,' Trump told reporters on Tuesday at the White House. Trump said he preferred that arrangement over collecting tolls 'because I don't think anybody should be charging a toll for the strait.
' It was not clear whether the investment deals would be new commitments relative to what Trump announced after a visit to the Middle East last year. Trump's plan to charge tolls would have been a shift from traditional U.S. policy and a turnaround from U.S. pledges that the strait would remain open to all without tolls.
Trump told Fox News Channel on Tuesday night that more U.S. attacks on Iran were imminent in the next two days, and that bridges and power plants could be targets in the coming week unless negotiations resume. The United States has already attacked at least one bridge
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