US strikes Iran again, blocks its oil sale and pushes oil price up to $76 a barrel

The US carried out a new round of strikes in Iran targeting more than 80 sites and revoked a waiver allowing new sales of its oil, further imperiling a peace agreement after a series of attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

American forces struck Iranian air defense systems, command and control networks, coastal radar sites, anti-ship missile capabilities, and more than 60 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps small boats.
Brent oil climbed 3.4% to trade near $77 a barrel early Wednesday. The rebound, after futures had plunged in the second quarter as regional tensions cooled, could rekindle inflationary concerns in global markets and among policymakers.

Brent prices touched a peak above $126 a barrel in late April, two months after the US and Israel began the military campaign against Iran. Prices returned toward pre-conflict levels this month on growing signs of a recovery in supplies.

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The US Central Command, in a statement on X on Tuesday, described the strikes as “an immediate response” to Tehran’s latest attacks on commercial vessels transiting the strait.

The US military said the latest American attacks had been concluded. Kuwaiti air defenses responded to hostile missile and drone threats, the country’s army said in a post on X.

IRGC said it struck Ali Al-Salem Airbase in Kuwait and the Fifth Fleet naval base in Salman Port, Bahrain, according to a statement carried by Iran’s state television.

The speaker of Iran’s parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, issued a warning to the US after the attack. “The era of bullying and extortion is over,” he said on a post on X. “It leads nowhere. We don’t fold.”

Hours earlier, the US Treasury Department announced it was barring new sales of Iranian oil after July 7, removing a key incentive intended to get Tehran to abide by a deal that calls for reopening the strait.