The dust had barely settled on the last exchange when the order came. On 13 July President Trump declared the United States would once again blockade Iranian ports from tomorrow and slap a 20 percent charge on every barrel and crate sliding through the Strait of Hormuz. The message was blunt. Strength, not talk, keeps the sea lanes open.
I remembered the checkpoints outside Basra years ago, the way men with guns measured your worth in the tremor of your hands. Same principle here, only the stakes are measured in supertankers and the lights of half the world's refineries. Trump put it plainly in a Fox News interview that same day:
We are taking over the strait. We will become the guardian of the strait and we should be reimbursed for that.
The move follows the collapse of a June memorandum of understanding that had briefly lifted an earlier blockade imposed back in April. Military action restarted on 7 July after Congress was notified. American strikes hit Iranian air defence systems, coastal radars, missile and drone sites, and swarms of small boats. Tehran answered with attacks on US facilities in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan, plus radar installations in Oman.
Explosions cracked across Qeshm Island and near Bandar Abbas yesterday. The smell of cordite and burnt fuel probably still hangs in the air this morning. Oil prices jumped more than 3 percent on the news. Markets have a way of cutting through the fog of diplomacy.
Iranian officials rejected the American claim outright. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X:
Whoever provides secure and safe passage should be compensated. Iran has always been the guardian of the strait and will remain so forever. Twenty percent is of course too much. We will be fair.The words carry the old rhythm of defiance, the same tone that has preceded every escalation since February.
That February clash began with Israeli and American strikes on nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. The Supreme Leader died in the barrage. His son has not been seen in public since March. The cycle feels relentless because the restraint shown in previous years proved costly. Each pause, each memorandum, each outstretched hand seemed only to buy Tehran time to rebuild its arsenal and its reach.
