US Strikes Over 80 Targets in Iran and Reimposed Oil Sanctions After Hormuz Tanker Attacks, as Ceasefire Collapses
The United States launched what US Central Command described as "a series of powerful strikes" against more than 80 military targets inside Iran on the night of July 7-8, 2026, dramatically unravelling the ceasefire agreement that had tentatively reopened the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping. The strikes targeted air defenses, radar installations, anti-ship missile sites, and dozens of small boats operated by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to a CENTCOM statement reported by CBS News, CNN, and Bloomberg. President Donald Trump approved the strike plan and ordered it while attending the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, convening his top national security officials — including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent — in an emergency session at the Turkish presidential compound.
The immediate trigger was a series of Iranian attacks on commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz. According to a US official cited by CNN, Iran fired on three commercial vessels in Omani territorial waters, which Washington described as a "gross violation" of the June memorandum of understanding between the two countries. Among the ships struck were the Qatari-owned LNG tanker Al Rekayat, which suffered an engine room fire placing it at risk of explosion, and the Saudi-flagged supertanker Wedyan, according to Wikipedia's updated crisis page citing Reuters and the Wall Street Journal. Qatar publicly accused Iran of responsibility, while Iranian state media suggested Tehran's involvement without an official claim. The Treasury Department simultaneously revoked a waiver that had allowed Iran to sell oil and petrochemicals — a central concession granted when the MOU was signed — with the price of Brent crude futures surging more than five percent on Tuesday, as reported by CNN.
Iran responded with force. The IRGC announced via Telegram that it had launched missiles and drones at more than 85 US military sites across Bahrain and Kuwait, targeting the US Fifth Fleet's base at Bahrain's Salman Port and the Ali Al Salem air base in Kuwait, as CNN reported. Kuwait's military confirmed its air defenses were responding to hostile missile and drone threats, urging the public to follow safety instructions. Iran's top nuclear negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf accused the United States of violating the memorandum of understanding in a post to X, warning that "the era of bullying and extortion is over," according to CBS News. Iran's leadership simultaneously issued a warning in the early hours of Wednesday that a "crushing response" to the US strikes was forthcoming, with an advisor to new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, Mohsen Rezaei, stating that Iran was "fully prepared" for further American military action, as Fox News Digital reported.
The escalation unfolded against a politically charged backdrop. Iran has been in the midst of a week-long state funeral for the former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US-Israeli airstrikes on February 28 — the first day of the war — along with several family members. As Al Jazeera reported, Iran's maneuver in the Strait was widely read as a bid to rebuke President Trump while he attended the NATO summit in neighboring Turkey, and to assert leverage acquired during the war. Mohsen Milani, a professor of politics at the University of South Florida, told Al Jazeera that Iran was "weaponising Hormuz geographically to bolster its bargaining power," seeking to convert its sovereignty over half of the strait into lasting influence. The Islamabad MOU had stipulated that the strait would remain free to all shipping for at least 60 days, but the vague wording and uncertainty about Iranian mines in the channel had already caused many shipping operators to hesitate.
The collapse of the MOU marks a potentially decisive turning point in a conflict that has already reshaped Middle Eastern geopolitics, spiked global energy prices, and strained the NATO alliance. With Iran's new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei still not having appeared publicly since his father's death — reportedly recovering from severe injuries, according to Reuters — questions over who holds decisive authority in Tehran add a layer of dangerous opacity to the crisis. The coming days will test whether the ceasefire framework can be salvaged through back-channel diplomacy, or whether the conflict enters a more destructive phase. Defense Secretary Hegseth is expected to travel separately from Ankara to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in part to address Israeli concerns over a potential US sale of advanced F-35 jets to Turkey — a sub-plot that underscores how many fault lines now run simultaneously through this crisis.