Oil tankers, bulk carriers and ships remain at anchor near Qaboos Port on June 22, 2026, in Muscat, Oman.
Elke Scholars | Getty Images
Oil prices fell on Monday after President Donald Trump said the US would reimpose a naval blockade against Iran as Tehran and Washington vie for control of the Strait of Hormuz.
Brent crude futures, the international benchmark, rose 5.3% to $80 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate futures were last seen 5.3% higher at $75.18.
“We are bringing back the IRANIAN BLOCKADE, so named because it only prevents Iranian ships or customers from entering or leaving. All other countries will have fair and open use of the Strait,” Trump said in a post on his social media platform.
The president said the US would protect the vehicles in Hormuz but demanded a refund equal to 20% of all goods sent. The decision to lift the embargo comes after the US and Iran exchanged strikes over the weekend.
The US military launched another wave of strikes on Sunday against Iran after hitting 140 targets on Saturday, according to the US Central Command. The strikes were related to an attack by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on a container ship passing through Hormuz.
Iran responded on Sunday with strikes on US military bases in Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, according to the state-run Tasnim news agency.
Iranian media said the Revolutionary Guard had sealed off Hormuz until further notice, but the US military denied that. Centcom said the route is open to “all ships that want to sail legally.”
“The US military is standing by and ready to ensure that freedom of movement is achieved despite Iran’s unnecessary aggression, harassment, threats and unjustified declarations,” Centcom said in a social media post on Sunday. “Iran does not control the current. The cars are moving.”
Trump said Hormuz was open in an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday. Maritime intelligence company Windward tracked nine ships that passed through the port on Saturday.
The southern route through Oman’s waters remains open to inbound and outbound traffic, said the Joint Maritime Information Center, a US-led naval coalition in Bahrain that provides security updates for human vessels in Middle East waters.
But the security situation in Hormuz remains critical, the agency said in a statement on Sunday. Marines should use “extreme caution,” it said.
The weekend airstrikes are the fourth time the US has bombed Iran in the past week in retaliation for attacks on commercial ships passing through Hormuz in the southern corridor protected by US forces.
Iran wants ships to use the northern route through its territory as it claims it controls the strait.
The latest flare-up of fighting comes from US and Iranian conflicting interpretations of how Hormuz should have reopened under the interim peace deal they signed on June 17.
About 20 percent of the world’s oil was transited through Hormuz before the US and Israel attacked Iran in Feb. 28. Traffic dropped sharply after Iran began attacking ships in the port in early March, but traffic picked up after Washington and Tehran signed an interim deal.
