WASHINGTON/DUBAI – The U.S. launched new airstrikes on Iranian targets on Tuesday, prompting Iranian retaliation and marking the most serious escalation in weeks in the conflict that has driven up global energy prices and weighed on President Donald Trump’s popularity at home. The strikes followed a weekend exchange of fire — the first since July — and Monday strikes on two tankers leaving the Strait of Hormuz, the global oil supply waterway that Iran has effectively closed to shipping. Global oil prices rose more than $4 a barrel on Tuesday, settling at a five-week high.
Tehran remained defiant, warning that it would prevent oil being exported from the Gulf, despite a threat by Trump to hit Iran “hard” in response to the renewed Iranian strikes, and a warning from U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that Washington was about to impose new sanctions.
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