Oil prices rose in early Asian trade after the US carried out fresh strikes on an Iranian military site near Bandar Abbas and intercepted multiple drones around the Strait of Hormuz, even as Washington and Tehran continue peace talks.
A US official told Reuters the overnight strikes targeted an Iranian ground control station believed to pose a threat to US forces and commercial shipping around the Strait of Hormuz. Four Iranian one-way attack drones were also shot down, the official said.
The strikes came hours after US President Donald Trump dismissed Iranian state media reports claiming Tehran and Oman would jointly manage shipping through the Strait of Hormuz under a possible peace arrangement.
“Nobody’s going to control the strait,” Trump said, adding that the waterway would remain international waters.
Iranian media reported that air defence systems were activated near Bandar Abbas early Thursday following the explosions.
The three-month-old conflict has disrupted shipping activity through the Strait of Hormuz, a key energy chokepoint that previously handled around a fifth of global oil and LNG trade. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Navy said only 23 commercial vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz in the last 24 hours, sharply lower than pre-war levels of 125-140 ships daily.
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