Trump on Iran:
"I'm likely to direct a strong strike at them again tonight. I'll give them a simple warning. We'll hit them hard tonight.”
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Trump brazenly announcing he will attack Iran again tonight
Luckily for him IRI is the most reactive state in modern history and will just wait for the bombs to drop and Iranians to be killed before firing a few drones at empty air bases in Kuwait and Bahrain and promise that “next time” the response will be disproportionate and earth shattering
It looks like Iran achieved what it wanted - which is to shut down the tanker traffic through the Omani side of the Strait of Hormuz. Trump's threats should be understood in this context.
Oil tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz "essentially stopped"
By
Anna Cooban
Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, on Wednesday. Reuters
Oil tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has “essentially stopped” as the 60-day ceasefire between the United States and Iran hangs in the balance.
“Traffic so far today appears to be completely halted,” wrote Jorge Leon, head of geopolitical analysis at research firm Rystad Energy, in a Wednesday note. It has “essentially stopped, which tells you more about risk perception right now than any statement from Washington or Tehran,” he added.
So far today, only four tankers have transited the strait, according to Kpler data.
Since the US and Iran agreed to a 60-day ceasefire on June 17, the daily average has been around 32 tankers, Naveen Das, a senior oil analyst at Kpler, told CNN. That’s almost triple the daily average seen between the start of the conflict in February and the June 17 agreement – though well below pre-war levels.
Opening the strait was a key condition for the US given its importance to the global energy market. Before the war, around one fifth of the world’s supply of oil and liquefied natural gas traversed the channel.
Global oil prices rose sharply on Wednesday as the prospect of the strait fully reopening became much less certain. Brent, the global oil benchmark, and West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, were both up around 5% by mid-morning ET.