West Asia war LIVE<\/a><\/p>\nTehran insists on controlling the waterway, saying it will charge fees for passage and threatening to hit vessels that deviate from its authorised route.<\/p>\n
Its military has struck at least three ships in recent days, which prompted extensive U.S. strikes against Iranian targets on Tuesday (July 7, 2026), followed by retaliatory attacks from Iran on Gulf countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs far as I\u2019m concerned, it\u2019s over,\u201d Mr. Trump said at a NATO summit in T\u00fcrkiye on Wednesday (July 8, 2026) when asked if the truce was intact, saying \u201cIt\u2019s just a waste of time dealing with them\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll let our wonderful negotiators keep talking if they want, but I don\u2019t see it. I don\u2019t like these people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Oil prices jumped 5% after Mr. Trump\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n
Both sides reported hitting dozens of targets, placing fresh strain on an interim deal to end their war and pushing oil prices to their highest level in two weeks.<\/p>\n
Iranian state media on Wednesday (July 8, 2026) reported a wave of explosions around the strait, including six on the island of Qeshm, seven in the city of Sirik and more in the major port city of Bandar Abbas.<\/p>\n
It later also reported a series of blasts in the port city of Bushehr, which hosts the country\u2019s only civilian nuclear power plant and lies near Kharg Island, the main oil terminal through which 90% of the nation\u2019s crude exports transit.<\/p>\n
State media said a member of the military\u2019s Revolutionary Guards was killed in Iran\u2019s southwest.<\/p>\n
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said its forces had struck over 80 targets, including Iranian air defence systems, coastal radar sites and 60 IRGC small boats.<\/p>\n
The strikes aimed \u201cto degrade Iran\u2019s ability to continue attacking international commerce flowing through the international trade corridor\u201d, it said.<\/p>\n
Tehran\u2019s reply came quickly, with the Guards saying they hit dozens of U.S. military facilities in Kuwait and Bahrain, where an AFP journalist heard blasts.<\/p>\n
Early on Wednesday (July 8, 2026), Bahrain\u2019s interior ministry and the Kuwaiti army both reported their air defence systems were triggered but did not offer details of any possible damage.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf accused the United States of \u201cmajor\u201d breaches of their memorandum of understanding, including by reinstating oil sanctions and \u201cviolating Iranian adjustments in the strait\u201d.<\/p>\n
Washington revoked sanction waivers on Iranian oil sales, raising pressure on Tehran as it negotiates over a final settlement to the conflict.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Treasury Department cancelled a licence announced in June that had allowed Iran to produce, sell and deliver crude oil and related products through August 21.<\/p>\n
\u201cIran\u2019s actions in the Strait were wholly unacceptable to the United States and will be met with consequences,\u201d a U.S. official told AFP.<\/p>\n
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding was \u201centirely performance-based\u201d, warning that Tehran would see benefits only if it showed \u201cgood behaviour\u201d.<\/p>\n
Hormuz attacks<\/p>\n
British maritime security agency UKMTO said on Tuesday (July 7, 2026) an \u201cunknown projectile\u201d hit a tanker near Hormuz, causing a fire, before two more vessels were struck, at least one by a drone.<\/p>\n
CENTCOM identified the ships as the Marshall Islands-flagged Al Rekayyat, the Saudi Arabia-flagged Wedyan and the Liberia-flagged Cyprus Prosperity.<\/p>\n
All three vessels were struck close to Oman, which had proposed a temporary transit corridor hugging its coastline — an initiative opposed by Iran as it seeks to impose fees on ships using the narrow waterway.<\/p>\n
The Al-Rekayyat is Qatari, and Doha denounced the \u201cunacceptable\u201d attack on international maritime navigation and summoned Iran\u2019s deputy ambassador to lodge a complaint.<\/p>\n
Iran voiced \u201cdismay\u201d over Qatar\u2019s accusations in a statement carried by state news agency IRNA, calling the claims \u201cunacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are now in a sensitive period where potential alternatives to an Iranian toll or fee system are being explored,\u201d Andreas Krieg, a security expert at King\u2019s College London, told AFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cIran is sending a clear signal that no alternative will be accepted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maritime traffic had tentatively resumed after Washington and Tehran signed the memorandum last month, but Iran has insisted there will be no return to pre-war arrangements, under which vessels could pass freely through the strait.<\/p>\n
Under the 14-point U.S.-Iran memorandum, Iran and Oman, which border Hormuz, must hold talks \u201cto define the future administration and maritime services\u201d in the waterway with other Gulf states.<\/p>\n
Published – July 08, 2026 02:45 pm IST<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. President Donald Trump said the ceasefire with Iran was \u201cover\u201d on Wednesday (July 8, 2026), after fighting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[34,21252,14198,22202,480],"class_list":["post-195962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-iran","tag-u-s-iran-conflict","tag-u-s-iran-war","tag-u-s-iran-ceasefire","tag-west-asia-conflict"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116883759028736209","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}