Bloomberg: US strikes Iran and blocks oil sales in new test of truce

Pic.: publics

The US carried out a new round of strikes in Iran targeting more than 80 sites and revoked a waiver allowing new sales of its oil, further imperiling a peace agreement after a series of attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, Bloomberg reports.

The US Central Command, in a statement on Tuesday, described the strikes as “an immediate response” to Tehran’s latest attacks on commercial vessels transiting the strait.

The US military said the latest American attacks had been concluded. Kuwaiti air defenses responded to hostile missile and drone threats, the country’s army said in a post.

IRGC said it struck Ali Al-Salem Airbase in Kuwait and the Fifth Fleet naval base in Salman Port, Bahrain, according to a statement carried by Iran’s state television.

The speaker of Iran’s parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, issued a warning to the US after the attack. “The era of bullying and extortion is over,” he said on a post. “It leads nowhere. We don’t fold.”

Hours earlier, the US Treasury Department announced it was barring new sales of Iranian oil after July 7, removing a key incentive intended to get Tehran to abide by a deal that calls for reopening the strait.

Taken together, the US actions further strained the interim agreement signed on June 17 and threatened negotiations aimed at reaching a permanent peace within 60 days. President Donald Trump approved the strikes on Iran while he was in Turkey for a NATO summit, according to a US official who asked not to be identified.

Brent oil climbed 3.4% to trade near $77 a barrel early Wednesday. The rebound, after futures had plunged in the second quarter as regional tensions cooled, could rekindle inflationary concerns in global markets and among policymakers.

Both sides accused the other of violating the ceasefire. Three commercial ships were attacked in the Strait of Hormuz over the last day, the most since the agreement went into effect, with the US blaming Iran for the strikes.

Iran called the US operation and the waiver revocation violations of the interim deal. Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi vowed “decisive actions” in response.

The end of attacks on commercial shipping and the previous 60-day waiver allowing Iranian oil sales were key elements of the memorandum of understanding that halted fighting between the US and Iran.

That deal was meant to create space for more detailed negotiations on the fate of Iran’s nuclear program and the future of the strait. But Iran has had difficulty in selling its crude, as price discounts narrowed, Chinese demand remained relatively muted and other nations fretted over the durability of the US waiver.

Even so, the memorandum has held only tenuously. In late June, Iran struck a Singapore-flagged container ship in the strait, prompting the US to retaliate and setting off a series of back-and-forth attacks.

Tehran has repeatedly said it wouldn’t allow vessels to transit the waterway without its permission, though it denied any involvement in an attack on a Qatar-linked vessel. Trump had pushed for ships to pass freely through the strait as they had done before the US and Israel began attacking Iran in late February.

Bob McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group and a former White House official, said the waiver revocation “is a signal to a complacent market that the ceasefire may not be as durable and solid as thought. The market has some risk pricing to do.”

Talks between the US and Iran were suspended as Tehran began a funeral for the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the war in late February. Qatar said the next meeting would be scheduled as soon as possible after the ceremonies. Khamenei will be buried in his hometown of Mashhad on July 9.

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