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Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said this week that a pair of “deviant” oil tankers exploded on Sunday after passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
According to the state-run Fars News Agency, the IRGC “announced in a statement that two deviant ships, instigated and forced by the United States, exploded on Sunday night after trying to enter and exit via the unsafe route of the Strait of Hormuz.”
“If they break their oaths after their covenant and attack your religion, then fight the leaders of disbelief; indeed, they have no oaths; perhaps they will cease,” the IRGC said in its statement.
“This is our land, and the intervention of the terrorist American army from thousands of kilometers away has no legal legitimacy and will definitely be confronted.”
Per Reuters, the IRGC also said that they had struck United States military systems in Bahrain, including “a radar and air defense system in Muharraq,” and also that they struck a Patriot air defense system in Riffa, also in Bahrain.
Ships Face “Worst-Case Scenario”
Dimitris Maniatis, CEO of the Greece-based maritime risk service Marisks, said in a note this week, as reported by CNBC, that shippers are facing a “worst-case scenario” in the Strait of Hormuz.
“We see the reduction of the volume of transits through the Strait of Hormuz, and right now crews of vessels are even more concerned than they were before,” Marisks’ Maniatis wrote in a Lloyd’s List Intelligence briefing this week. “Nobody is willing to move.”
The International Maritime Organization reported that there have been 61 confirmed incidents in the Strait of Hormuz and the Middle East so far this year. CNBC stated that, as of last weekend, nine ships have been struck in the Strait since July 6.
Iran, the report said, has favored anti-ship missiles in the attacks.
“All this resonates with crews, and right now they’re just not very happy to go through no matter what is promised to them,” Maniatis said in the briefing. “It’s not about money anymore. It’s not about any other higher calling. It’s purely about the fear that is governing the decision-making right now.”
A New Front?
Meanwhile, there are worries about a new front in the conflict, one that could cause more disruptions to oil supplies and instability in the region.
Per the Washington Post, the Iran-aligned Houthi militia in Yemen has announced a blockade on Saudi oil shipments through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea, which has been used as an alternate route for some tankers blocked from the Strait of Hormuz.
The Houthis declared “a maritime embargo against the criminal Saudi enemy, based on the equation of ‘an eye for an eye,’ effective immediately,” according to Yemeni state-run media.
One Chinese oil tanker carrying Saudi oil turned around on Tuesday due to threats from the Houthis, Bloomberg News reported.
The Saudis, meanwhile, have vowed to move “firmly and forcefully” against the Houthis.
“If successful, the move could choke off one of the Gulf’s few viable alternatives for oil exports and reduce global supply by an estimated 7 percent,” the Washington Post said of the Houthis’ move.
“Already, 10 percent of global oil shipments are halted by disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, which has been largely shut by Iranian threats and mines since the U.S. and Israel launched the war five months ago.”
This has already resulted in higher oil prices.
The Brent crude oil benchmark reached $88 a barrel on Monday, up from about $70 earlier this month, before the hostilities resumed, although it had jumped as high as $118 a barrel in April, during the height of the war.
The average gas price in the United States on Monday once again crossed the $4-a-gallon mark.
The Goal is Oil Flow
Appearing Sunday on ABC’s This Week, U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright discussed the administration’s goals, per The Guardian.
“We did a pause to try to get an agreement with the Iranian people to allow oil to flow without them attacking it,” Wright said. “They’ve proven unwilling to do that, and we’ve pivoted.
Now, what we’re doing is assuring that that oil and gas and other products can flow through the Strait of Hormuz with or without Iranian cooperation, and we’ve continued to degrade their offensive military capabilities.”
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist, and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review, and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, national security, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
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