WASHINGTON/ TEHRAN: The United States revoked on Tuesday a general license that authorised the sale of Iranian oil, as a US official warned that Iran’s actions in the Strait of Hormuz were “wholly unacceptable” and would be met with consequences after attacks on tankers in the strategic waterway.
Oil prices rose more than 3 per cent following the announcement. The US Treasury said it would allow a wind-down period to July 17 for Iran’s oil transactions that had been allowed under the now revoked license.
The US official said negotiators continued to work in good faith towards a final agreement with Iran despite the latest escalation.
The US move came after three tankers reported being struck by unknown projectiles in and near the Strait of Hormuz in recent days, the British navy-affiliated agency UKMTO said in a report.
The attacks and the US response threaten to put a fragile diplomatic understanding between Washington and Tehran on shaky ground, raising the risk that further retaliation could derail negotiations over a broader agreement.
Another US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said initial indications were that Iran had fired at three commercial vessels.
The potential escalation comes as both sides had been working towards a deal that included limits on Iran’s nuclear programme and relief from some sanctions, including restrictions on oil exports.
Qatar blamed Iran for the attack on a huge Qatari liquefied natural gas tanker, the Al Rekayyat, which reported being struck overnight by a drone that caused a fire in its engine room. Qatar summoned Iran´s deputy ambassador on Tuesday to lodge a complaint.
The crew were safe and being evacuated, but maritime security sources briefed on the incident told Reuters the fire on board could put the ship at risk of blowing up. A Saudi-flagged crude oil tanker was also damaged off Oman’s coast. Saudi Arabia blamed Iran for the attack on one of its tankers as it transited the Strait of Hormuz. The Saudi foreign ministry denounced in a statement “Iran´s targeting of the Saudi tanker Wedyan while it was transiting the Strait of Hormuz, as well as the targeting of the Qatari tanker Al-Rekayyat”.
In another incident later on Tuesday, a tanker was struck by a drone while transiting the strait, sustaining minor damage, but was able to sail to its next port of call, British navy-affiliated agency UKMTO said in a report.
The incidents were the first reported attacks in the strait since mourning for Khamenei began last week, highlighting the ongoing insecurity for Gulf shipping more than four months after the United States and Israel launched a war they said would stop Iran threatening its neighbours.
Iran’s clerical rulers have exerted newfound control over the world’s most important energy shipping route, where they aim to install a permanent system to collect fees in what would amount to a huge shift of the balance of power in a region where Washington has long acted as guarantor of security.
At home, the leadership has used the mourning period to show its control after Khamenei was killed with his daughter, granddaughter, son-in-law and daughter-in-law on the war’s first day.
The caskets of the slain leader and family were driven through the streets of the seminary city of Qom on Tuesday. Crowds carried red flags and placards wishing death upon US President Donald Trump and Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu.
The body of Ali Khamenei arrived at Najaf international airport in Iraq on Tuesday night, Iraqi state media reported, ahead of funeral processions in the country´s holy cities. Iraqi officials and senior politicians, including Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, were also there to receive the remains of the late supreme leader.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to resume bombing, most recently on Monday when he told reporters in the Oval Office: “We’re either going to make a deal or we’re going to finish the job..... We can knock down their bridges in one hour, we can knock out their energy supply.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that under the terms of the interim ceasefire memorandum, negotiations on the final deal would “not commence if threats continue”. “Honor your signature,” he wrote on X.
At a NATO summit in Ankara, France and Britain were set to outline plans for a multinational maritime mission in the Strait of Hormuz at talks between Nato and Gulf Arab foreign ministers on Tuesday. Diplomats said Iran’s rejection of the initiative left little prospect of agreement on the waterway. A security expert at King´s College London, Andreas Krieg, told AFP, “We are now in a sensitive period where potential alternatives to an Iranian toll or fee system are being explored”.
“Iran is sending a clear signal that no alternative will be accepted. “Tankers trying to diverge through the Omani maritime corridor without registering with the Iranian authority will be punished,” Krieg added, calling it a “clear violation” of the ceasefire agreement and international law.
US news outlet Axios reported late Monday that Iran had “fired at least two missiles at commercial ships”, citing two unnamed US officials.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a CNN interview on Tuesday that despite occasional disagreements with US President Donald Trump on Iran, they see “eye to eye” on the big things related to handling Tehran.
Netanyahu said it was too early to say what would happen after Washington and Tehran signed an interim peace deal. “The President believes that he can stop Iran’s nuclear program,” Netanyahu told CNN, but added that he has his doubts. “On the big things we see eye to eye, and occasionally we don’t, but we’re true allies,” he said.
Britain on Tuesday summoned Iran’s Chargé d’Affaires, Tehran’s most senior diplomat in London, after two Romanian nationals were given lengthy jail sentences over the stabbing of a journalist working for a Persian-language media group in London.
The two men, Nandito Badea, 21, and George Stana, 25, -who British prosecutors said were acting as proxies for the Iranian government - were sentenced last week to eight years and 12 years in jail respectively for their role in the 2024 attack. They had pleaded not guilty to charges of wounding with intent but were convicted at London’s Woolwich Crown Court in June.
Pouria Zaratifoukolaei, known as Pouria Zeraati, a British journalist of Iranian origin who works for Iran International, was stabbed three times in the leg near his home in southwest London in March 2024.
Fuel costs for US airlines jumped 85 per cent in May to nearly $6.7 billion as the Middle East conflict drove up prices, the US Transportation Department said on Monday.
Head of TotalEnergies Patrick Pouyanne, visiting Damascus alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, said Tuesday that Syria could become an important transit country from Iraq to the Mediterranean sea, offering “alternative routes” to the Strait of Hormuz.
German industrial production ticked up more than expected in May, official data showed Tuesday, as Europe´s top economy defied the worst following the virtual closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Israel’s energy minister said Gulf countries’ dependence on oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz could be significantly reduced by a pipeline linking the Gulf to Europe via Israel, allowing them also to bypass Red Sea shipping disruptions. “The Gulf countries do not want to be dependent on either Iran or the Houthis (in Yemen) when it comes to their oil exports, which are their primary source of income,” Eli Cohen, Israel’s energy minister, told Reuters in an interview in Jerusalem.
Iran on Tuesday condemned Qatar for accusations that it was behind an attack on one of the Gulf emirate’s vessels, after Doha said Tehran had targeted a liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker off the coast of Oman.
“Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Qatar´s accusations against Iran over the alleged attack on a vessel linked to the country in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday were questionable and contrary to the principle of good neighbourliness, describing them as unacceptable,” state news agency IRNA reported.
Meanwhile, Adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Mohsen Rezaei said in an interview with state TV on Tuesday that it is quite clear that the United States will lead the negotiations with Iran to failure. He added that the US is trying to create an alternative passageway in the Strait of Hormuz for its ships.
The US military has launched a series of strikes against Iran, US Central Command said in a post on X on Tuesday, adding that the strikes were in response to what it said were Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels that were transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
