The Strait of Hormuz continued to be a flashpoint in the breakdown of the memorandum of understanding—signed last month by the U.S. and Iran to lay the groundwork for a final peace deal—and in the resumption of hostilities between the two countries, as the Iran War entered its 136th day on Monday.
The U.S. bombed Iran and Iran retaliated with strikes on U.S. bases Sunday evening, for the fourth time in the past seven days. U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for the Middle East, claimed American forces had targeted “military air-defense systems, coastal radar sites, missile and drone capabilities, and small boats” while Iran claimed it had targeted missile depots and fuel tanks at the Prince Hassan Air Base in Jordan, U.S. military facilities in Bahrain, and a ground-based radar system in Oman, among other sites.
The exchange came after Iranian attacks on some vessels that tried traveling through the Strait of Hormuz without coordinating with Tehran, and are part of a broader dispute over management of the critical sea passage. Drop Site News reports that the U.S. has exerted pressure to open up a route nearer the Omani coastline beyond Iranian control. Iran opposes the creation of that separate Omani channel — which Iran’s Tasnim News Agency refers to as the “Omani-American Corridor” — and points to article five of the MOU, which says “the Islamic Republic of Iran will make arrangements” for the Strait of Hormuz and that the “future administration” of the waterway would be determined exclusively by Iran and Oman.
President Donald Trump on Monday proposed that the U.S. could charge fees for “guarding,” the Strait of Hormuz, which is currently under Iran’s control. “We’re gonna keep the strait and we’ll probably run it,” Trump told Fox News. The president added, “We guarded the Strait for 50 years —more — and we never got paid for it….we guarded it for nothing. And now we are gonna guard it and we are gonna get paid for guarding it.”
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In a post on Truth Social, Trump claimed that “The Hormuz Strait is OPEN, and will remain OPEN, with or without Iran,” announcing that the U.S. would reinstate a naval blockade on Iranian shipping. Trump again proposed that the U.S. become “THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT.” He said that, “as a matter of FAIRNESS,” the U.S. “will be reimbursed, at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped, for any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security to this very volatile section of the World.”
Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has continued to plunge since the ceasefire broke down, with Bloomberg reporting Monday morning that it had tracked only seven commercial ships transiting through the waterway in the last 24 hours. Shipping tracker Kpler reported that “confirmed Strait of Hormuz crossings declined by around 52% week on week over 10 to 12 July, with traffic reverting to more defensive routing patterns.” Kpler noted that the use of Iranian and “dark routes” increased, while use of the Omani corridor and others not controlled by Iran “almost disappeared.”
The price of oil continued to rise, with the price of Brent Crude at $79.40 on Monday morning.
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