“This strait will be opened and closed only under Iran’s command, and so long as you do not accept the reality of defeat and stop indulging in fantasies, Iran will continue to enforce the blockade,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said in a post on X early Saturday, showing little urgency toward restoring prewar trade.<\/p>\n
“The Strait of Hormuz cannot be seized by a tweet or an aircraft carrier, by issuing \u200ban order or by delivering an election speech,” he said.<\/p>\n
One out of every five barrels of the world’s oil exports passed through the strait before the U.S.<\/a> and Israel launched the \u200bwar<\/a> on February 28.Trump on Friday urged Americans to accept slightly higher gasoline prices<\/a> while the conflict with Iran continues.<\/p>\n At a political rally in Garden City, \u2060New York, Trump said paying “a tiny little bit more for your gasoline” is worth the cost of ensuring “a very evil country” could not have a nuclear weapon, one of the president’s stated rationales \u200bfor the war.<\/p>\n In a trend that has fueled inflation and disappointed voters, the average U.S. price of a gallon of gasoline was about $4.08 on Friday, according to the American Automobile Association. That’s up 29% from $3.16 a \u200byear earlier.<\/p>\n Only two vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, according to analysis from ship-tracking firm Kpler: a grain ship entering Iranian waters and an empty dry bulk ship going the other direction. A separate empty liquefied petroleum products tanker was sailing into the Gulf via the strait, the data showed. There were no crude oil shipments visible.<\/p>\n Some ships may cross the strait undetected with their transponders off, but the figures are nowhere \u200bnear the more than 130 ships that traversed it daily before the war.<\/p>\n Those that dare navigate the strait without Iranian permission risk missile or drone strikes<\/a>. The United Arab Emirates’ Abu Dhabi National \u200bOil Company said two of its vessels were attacked transiting the strait on Thursday evening, then the Emirati state news agency WAM reported another vessel came under attack on Friday. Iran labels its enforcement of strait traffic a \u200cblockade, while \u2060the U.S. uses the same term for its threat against Iranian vessels leaving their ports.<\/p>\n “What we’re doing is a great service for the world, not only for ourselves … and we’re really doing a great job,” Trump said, adding that a 260-day deployment by a U.S. aircraft carrier supporting the war effort was “not nearly long enough.<\/a>“<\/p>\n With a tentative June deal to end the war in tatters, there was no sign that the U.S. or Iran planned to resume peace talks.<\/p>\n Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said no decision has yet been made to restart negotiations with the United States, \u200bthe Iranian Student News Agency reported on Saturday. \u200bMediators Qatar and Pakistan were in contact with \u2060Iran and exchanging messages, but this did not amount to negotiations, the agency said.<\/p>\n ECONOMIC TOLL<\/p>\n Higher fuel prices have collided with a Trump campaign promise to lower energy costs, and Democrats are seeking to make economic fallout of the Iran war an issue in the November midterm elections.<\/p>\n The virtual closure of the strait helped raise crude oil futures<\/a> another $1 \u200ba barrel on Friday. Benchmark Brent and West Texas Intermediate futures were on track for weekly gains of 6.0% and 5.4%, respectively.<\/p>\n Gharibabadi said \u200bTehran would not be \u2060intimidated by threats or a show of force. But there were signs of an economic toll on Iran.<\/p>\n In remarks broadcast on state television, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian blamed high inflation on a U.S. blockade of Iranian ports and sanctions on Iran’s oil exports.<\/p>\n Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent each pledged to inflict more financial damage on Iran. Bessent told Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight” program on Thursday that announcements of more measures against Iran were coming next week.<\/p>\n The \u2060latest attacks \u200bby Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis<\/a> renewed concerns about a widening regional war. Yemen’s internationally recognized government said the Houthis fired six ballistic \u200bmissiles at the Red Sea port of Mocha on Friday, killing four civilians.<\/p>\n Separately, the Houthi-run SABA news agency cited a military source as saying the group had targeted an Aramco facility in the Saudi city of Najran with a drone.<\/p>\n Reporting \u200bby Menna Alaa El Din and Enas Alashray in Cairo, Humeyra Pamuk in Garden City, New York, and Jarrett Renshaw in Washington; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Sergio Non and Cynthia Osterman<\/p>\n Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab<\/a><\/p>\n Purchase Licensing Rights<\/a> Humeyra Pamuk is a senior foreign policy correspondent based in Washington DC. She covers the U.S. State Department, regularly traveling with U.S. Secretary of State. During her 20 years with Reuters, she has had postings in London, Dubai, Cairo and Turkey, covering everything from the Arab Spring and Syria’s civil war to numerous Turkish elections and the Kurdish insurgency in the southeast. In 2017, she won the Knight-Bagehot fellowship program at Columbia University\u2019s School of Journalism. She holds a BA in International Relations and an MA on European Union studies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oil tanker traffic through strategic waterway grinds to a haltNo sign of peace talks on the horizonTrump says…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[25107,488,14989,25110,14976,35126,15010,15011,15012,64412,69203,29985,15013,33578,14977,14988,14990,25112,154,25113,6875,25114,14978,22168,57886,2118,34,29984,14986,25108,14981,25115,35128,25116,29986,15016,14982,5352,38896,69202,15014,15015,38895,14983,14985,14987,25119,153,36,25106],"class_list":["post-249585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-amers","tag-asia","tag-asxpac","tag-com","tag-cwp","tag-def","tag-destmetop","tag-destocatpm","tag-destouktpm","tag-destousdnm","tag-destousnrg","tag-destoustpm","tag-destouswdm","tag-destseatp","tag-dip","tag-emea","tag-emrg","tag-ener","tag-energy","tag-enff","tag-eng","tag-enr","tag-gen","tag-il","tag-insurg","tag-ir","tag-iran","tag-lb","tag-meast","tag-namer","tag-news1","tag-nrg","tag-nucl","tag-oilg","tag-packageus-top-news","tag-packageworld-news","tag-pol","tag-potus","tag-prod","tag-repitransport-fuels","tag-rulesiran","tag-rulesiran-crisis","tag-rulestrump","tag-secur","tag-swasia","tag-tglf","tag-topicmarkets-commodities-energy","tag-us","tag-war","tag-wash"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249585","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=249585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"U.S.](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GDG6U523ARMAPEIOFDORZVZVSM.jpg\")
U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks at David S. Mack Center for Training and Intelligence in Garden City, New York, U.S., August 14, 2026. REUTERS\/Ken Cedeno Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Humeyra](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/https:\/\/author-service-images-prod-us-east-1.publishing.aws.arc.pub\/reuters\/aa22fc83-e232-4f6f-bcdb-.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n