Iran announced it was closing the Strait of Hormuz to all vessels after the United States launched strikes on “multiple targets” on Wednesday evening.
“From this moment on, due to insecurity in the region, the Strait of Hormuz is declared closed to the traffic of any type of vessel, including oil tankers and commercial vessels, and any traffic will be affected,” the Iranian military said in a statement.
The strait provides access to roughly a fifth of the global oil supply. While Iran has closed the strait, the U.S. maintains a blockade on Iranian ports. The interruption has sent energy prices soaring and disrupted other supply chains, such as fertilizers and synthetic materials.
U.S. Central Command launched a series of attacks against Iran less than an hour before Iran’s announcement and denied that the strait had been closed.
“U.S. Central Command forces began launching additional self-defense strikes today at 5:15 p.m. ET against multiple targets in Iran at the Commander in Chief’s direction. The strikes are in response to Iran’s unwarranted and continued aggression,” CENTCOM said on Wednesday.
“Commercial ships are continuing to transit in and out” of the strait, CENTCOM posted later in the evening.
President Donald Trump said earlier on Wednesday that the U.S. has taken oil out of Iran.
“I’m just announcing today for the first time, but we’ve been taking out millions of barrels of oil, millions of barrels every night,” Trump told reporters.
“Millions of barrels of oil has come out, and that’s why it’s at $85-$90 a barrel, instead of $250,” he added.
WHO IS MORE DESPERATE FOR A DEAL: TRUMP OR IRAN?
Earlier on Wednesday, President Donald Trump criticized what he described as Iran’s “tap-tap-tap” diplomacy, citing the reported shootdown of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter while it was patrolling the Strait of Hormuz.
“It was just tap, tap, tap. I don’t know what they’re doing, so they then shot at our helicopter, very expensive helicopter, by the way, but much more importantly, the two men,” he said. “We were really close to a deal, but they keep tapping us along. They keep playing us for suckers, because you know what, they dealt with some very stupid presidents.”
