Reuters : Iran said on Wednesday it had attacked 10 ships near the Strait of Hormuz after the U.S. sank five Iranian oil tankers, in the biggest wave of attacks on shipping by both sides since the start of the six-month-old war.
The attacks sent the price of oil surging, with benchmark Brent crude futures breaching $100 a barrel for the first time since July. At least one seafarer aboard a tanker was reported killed and another listed as missing.
The incidents follow a month of relative calm, during which the U.S. has sought to pressure Iran through economic means.
Iran said it had fired ballistic missiles at a U.S. military base in Jordan. Jordan said it intercepted 18 missiles, with the remaining two falling harmlessly in unpopulated areas. A U.S. official said all American troops were accounted for.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said it would sharply escalate its response to any further attacks, and said Iran would soon release maps of a new, enlarged off-limits zone at sea that would extend as far as Chabahar on the coast near Pakistan.President Donald Trump said Tehran was trying to influence the November U.S. midterm elections, which will determine whether his Republican Party retains control of Congress.
“I think war is going to end immediately after the election because they can’t hold out any longer. They’re desperate to try and affect the election,” he told reporters.
The Wall Street Journal reported later on Wednesday that top White House advisers, including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have privately warned Trump that the conflict could extend through the remainder of his presidency, which ends in January 2029. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
In recent days there has also been an escalation in fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis in Yemen, a second theater of war that threatens global energy supplies from the Middle East.
