Strait of Hormuz

Iran’s top customer for oil, China, massively increased its purchases in the first three weeks of June just before Israel began striking Iranian nuclear sites.

Shipping rates on routes that could be affected by the Israel-Iran conflict skyrocketed by up to 76 percent in June.

Threats to commercial vessels around the Arabian Peninsula are growing after U.S. airstrikes against Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

South Korean Acting Finance Minister Lee Hyoung-il said on Sunday that his government will “swiftly take any necessary measures” to cope with economic fallout from the conflict with Iran.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a designated terrorist organization, on Saturday released footage of its speedboats confronting two U.S. Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz on August 17.

Naval assets from Australia, Japan, and the U.S. will meet in the South China Sea this week, gathering off the western Philippines to highlight their commitment to the rule of law in the region after a recent show of Chinese aggression in the disputed waters, Filipino security officials said Sunday.

Steer clear of Iranian territorial waters. That was the simple message to international shipping companies Saturday as U.S./Iran tensions over the strategic Strait of Hormuz continue to escalate.

The United States might offer armed sailors and Marines to commercial ships transiting the Gulf’s Strait of Hormuz, two U.S. officials said on Thursday, in an attempt to foil any plans by Iran to stop, board, and seize ships in international waters as they pass through the key seaway.

The U.S. signaled it is bolstering its military presence in the Middle East on Thursday by ordering additional warships and marines to the area to counter Iran’s growing threats to commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. The USS Bataan

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Wednesday announced that it quietly withdrew from a U.S.-led security coalition called the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) two months ago.

A stop-and-board operation by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard Corps. helped it seize a Panamanian-flagged oil tanker in the strategic Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday.

Iranian naval officials claimed on Thursday that they had successfully intercepted and harassed an American nuclear-powered submarine, a claim the U.S. Navy denied on the grounds that no such submarine was in the region.

Warships from China, Iran, and Russia joined together Wednesday to begin naval drills in the Gulf of Oman and near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, China’s Defense Ministry announced.

Iran has “immense naval power” that enables it to project force into the contested waters of the Strait of Hormuz and beyond. That is the unalloyed warning from the commander in chief of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Major General Hossein Salami, to both the U.S. Navy and the “old fox” British Royal Navy.

A U.S. Navy warship fired a warning flare early Tuesday to repel a speedboat from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) during a tense encounter in the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard is building a massive new support ship near the strategic Strait of Hormuz as it tries to expand its naval presence in waters vital to international energy supplies and beyond, satellite photos obtained by The Associated Press show.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Tuesday unveiled a new unmanned, “smart” submarine they claim can be helmed remotely.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The U.S. Air Force said Sunday it flew a B-1B strategic bomber over key maritime chokepoints in the Mideast with allies including Israel amid ongoing tensions with Iran as its nuclear deal with world powers remains in tatters.

Iran’s largest naval vessel caught fire and sank Wednesday in the Gulf of Oman, under circumstances yet to be made clear by Tehran.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Tuesday they warned U.S. Navy vessels to watch their behavior after Washington said warning shots were fired near Iranian fast attack boats, the latest confrontation between the rivals in the Persian Gulf.

Iran’s Navy Commander, Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi, said Thursday no foreign warships would dare enter its territorial waters because of the nation’s seaborne superiority, promising a “grinding response” awaits any intruders that tried.

Russian news sources reported Monday that Russia, China, and Iran will hold joint naval drills in the northern Indian Ocean in the next few weeks. The precise date and scope of the exercises were not specified.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the theocratic wing of the Iranian military and a designated terrorist organization, seized the South Korean-flagged tanker Hankuk Chemi in the Persian Gulf on Monday.

An Israeli submarine transited the Suez Canal and is in the Red Sea, poised for possible action against Iran, the Israeli television station KAN 11 reported.

Iran claims its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) flew a surveillance drone over the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier last week as it transited the Strait of Hormuz, an Iranian news agency said Wednesday.

A U.S. military official on Thursday accused the Iranian navy of boarding a Liberian-flagged oil tanker near the strategic Strait of Hormuz as tensions between Tehran and Washington continue to climb.

A wooden replica U.S. aircraft carrier attacked by Iran last month as part of a propaganda exercise appears to have capsized in the Strait of Hormuz, blocking a key shipping channel in the process.

The U.S. Navy taunted Iran’s unmatched ability at building a target ship by taking to Instagram and showing the bogus American aircraft carrier with a bullseye on it.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard on Tuesday used massed speedboats, missiles, commandos and helicopter-borne rockets to overwhelm a fake aircraft carrier as guard commander, Major General Hossein Salami, looked on. The unmanned wooden target remained stationary and defenseless during the entire drill.

Iran used tugboats to move a fake wooden aircraft carrier to the strategic Strait of Hormuz on Sunday as naval tensions between Tehran and the U.S. rise, satellite photographs show.

Iran has re-built a crude wooden mock-up of a U.S. Navy nuclear aircraft carrier at a shipyard alongside its Persian Gulf coast, readying it for the express purpose of being targeted in live-fire drills.

Nineteen sailors are dead and 15 others left wounded after an Iranian naval support vessel was reportedly hit and sunk by a surface-to-surface missile late Sunday in a “friendly fire” incident.

WASHINGTON — A group of 11 Iranian naval vessels made “dangerous and harassing” maneuvers near U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf near Kuwait on Wednesday, in one case passing within 10 yards (meters) of a Coast Guard cutter, American officials said.

Sailors onboard the Iranian Navy’s 66th flotilla took to international waters Tuesday to commemorate the 41st anniversary of the Iran Islamic Revolution by shouting angry insults and threats at U.S. and Israeli forces.

China’s envoy to Iran, Chang Hua, said on Tuesday that nothing would soften Beijing’s determination to develop a strategic partnership with Tehran. He said this shortly before Iran launched a missile attack against two Iraqi military bases.

The United Kingdom defended the actions of the Trump administration in Iran, saying the United States is “entitled to defend itself” against Iranian aggression and deploying the Royal Navy to the Persian Gulf to protect shipping vessels flying the British