Iran Declares Strait of Hormuz Closed and Strikes a US-Manned Base in Jordan as the Ceasefire Collapses

The interim truce between the United States and Iran has collapsed. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) declared the Strait of Hormuz "closed until further notice", warning that any vessel in the waterway, including oil tankers, would be fired on, and said it had struck a US command-and-control center and the Al-Azraq air base housing American forces in Jordan with ballistic missiles. Jordan's military said it intercepted eight incoming missiles on July 9.

The United States responded with force. US Central Command (CENTCOM) said its forces struck about 80 Iranian military targets, including more than 60 IRGC small boats along with air-defense systems, coastal radar and anti-ship missile sites, after Iran attacked three commercial ships near the strait. Washington also reimposed sanctions on Iranian oil exports. CENTCOM disputes that the channel is shut, maintaining that "Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz" and reporting days earlier that 55 merchant ships and roughly 17 million barrels of oil had transited in a single day.

The two sides describe the sequence differently, as they have throughout. President Donald Trump had already called the ceasefire "over," and after the funeral of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei drew open calls for his killing, he said missiles were "locked, loaded and aimed at Iran" and threatened to "completely decimate" the country if any attempt were made on his life. Iranian officials insisted they had "kept their word" on the truce and blamed repeated US and Israeli violations, while the earlier US demand that Iran publicly vow to halt attacks on shipping has been overtaken by the cross-border strikes.

Markets moved through energy. Brent crude settled about 5.2 percent higher at 78.02 dollars a barrel, its highest close since June 19, and West Texas Intermediate rose about 4.4 percent to 73.52 dollars, as the strait carries roughly a fifth of the world's seaborne oil and gas and tanker traffic remained disrupted.