WNAM MONITORING: The US launched strikes on Iran early Tuesday morning, hours after President Donald Trump said Washington is “reinstating” a blockade on Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. Trump separately suggested the United States will charge other ships for safe passage, upending hundreds of years of American policy supporting freedom of navigation across the globe. Iran responded with attacks targeting Bahrain and two tankers associated with the United Arab Emirates traveling through the strait, killing one mariner and wounding eight others. The Emirates threatened to retaliate against Iran, potentially drawing the nation home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai back into fighting with Tehran.
Bahrain sounded its missile alert siren for the third time Tuesday morning as Iran retaliated over US strikes targeting it. The island kingdom urged the public to take shelter. There was no immediate information on any damage or casualties caused by the attacks. Iran claimed multiple rounds of attacks targeting Bahrain on Tuesday. Iran also targeted Jordan which confirmed it had intercepted missiles over it’s territory on Tuesday morning. The attacks come as Iran and the US both vie for control of the strait through which a fifth of all crude oil and natural gas once passed in peacetime. The price of benchmark Brent crude oil rose 7.8 percent to $81.92 a barrel, still well below the nearly $120 reached at the height of the war but threatening to make costs everywhere higher.
Trump insists strait will be open
US Central Command announced on social media that the US military had begun another round of strikes against Iran. “These strikes will continue imposing a heavy cost on Iranian forces and degrade their ability to attack innocent civilians and commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” the US military said. Moments after the military announced the new strikes, Trump called it “another major attack.”
“We’re hitting them very hard. And it’ll continue, and we’ll see what happens,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “We’re knocking out all of their offensive capability and we’re controlling the straits. We’re putting the blockade back.” Trump also provided new details on his administration doing an about-face and suggesting it will charge tolls for ships going through the strait, after previously suggesting that it wouldn’t. “We’re protecting a very rich portion of the world,” he said. “We’re spending money. And so, what we’ve done is, we are going to be reimbursed for protection.” “I want to be reimbursed because we’re protecting a very rich portion of the world. We’re spending money, and so what we’ve done is we are going to be reimbursed for protection.”
It’s a change in US policy that, until now, said the strait should remain open to all without tolls — as it was before the US and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. Any attempt by the US or Iran to charge fees would violate global norms on freedom of navigation and raise tensions, likely causing further economic disruption far beyond the region.
