Iran Threatens to Stop Oil From Leaving the Middle East

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth vowed on Tuesday that “today will be, yet again, our most intense day of strikes inside Iran” at the same time that Iranian forces unleashed a new barrage of attacks on Israel and its Gulf neighbors. With both Washington and Tehran ruling out cease-fire talks, experts expect the global energy crisis to worsen as the war trudges on. Fears of Iranian attacks coupled with high insurance costs have largely halted oil and gas tankers from traversing the Strait of Hormuz, where around 20 percent of the world’s crude normally passes. On Tuesday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary...