Oil

Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has three levels: the political, the military, and the economic. The political part is the strongest, and the economic part is the weakest.

Trump is considering deploying additional troops to the Middle East, a move that would reinforce operations in the region as the US weighs its options.

Later, after Iran threatened Gulf states with retaliatory strikes, Qatar and Saudi Arabia reportedly intercepted multiple incoming missile barrages targeting oil and industrial sites.

Baghdad has been seeking a deal to move oil through the Kurdistan Region to Turkey, but the Kurds want Iraq to lift the trade embargo it has imposed on the territory.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-affiliated Tasnim News Agency corroborated that petrochemical facilities in South Pars were targeted, stating that the extent of damage was not yet clear.

The company, co-founded in 2024 by a former Tesla vice-president, frames its approach as Direct Air Capture.

Kharg Island, a tiny Persian Gulf outpost, controls nearly all of Iran’s oil exports, making it the regime’s key economic vulnerability.

Iran lost the first round badly. Its nuclear sites are rubble. Its air defenses are gone. The Revolutionary Guards have taken casualties they won't acknowledge for months.

"There is a wide feeling across the Gulf that Iran has crossed every red line with every Gulf country,” said Abdulaziz Sager, chairman of the Saudi-based Gulf Research Center.

The threatening statements come even as Cuba and the United States have opened talks aimed at improving their largely adverse relations.