Iran says another tanker struck a mine in Strait of Hormuz
The IRGC reported the mine strike as Iran's military leadership says the waterway stays shut until its conditions are met.
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Map: The Gulf and Hormuz, marking Strait of Hormuz
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said another oil tanker struck a mine in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday.
The strike extends a run of incidents that has quickened through the month, from roughly one a week in September to nearly one every day or two by mid-October, including three supertanker hits, a container-ship sinking and a drone strike on a fishing vessel in the past week alone. Iran's army chief has vowed the strait stays closed until Iran's rights are honored, after a week that also brought a fire in the strait's eastern waters. State media cited Iran's navy reporting a separate vessel ablaze east of the strait.
The United States has signaled it is weighing a stronger response. CBS News reported the White House is preparing "mother of all bombs" plans for Iran, filed after a third tanker attack in the strait in two days. CNN separately reported the US is considering use of the GBU-57 bunker-buster, a weapon built to destroy hardened nuclear sites. Iran's parliament speaker, Ghalibaf, has said a US deal cannot prevent another attack on Iran, and officials have claimed Washington and Israel left the conflict empty-handed, a position that sits against Oman's framing of talks as the route to reopening the strait.
With no sign that dispute over sequencing, meaning whether the blockade lifts before or after Iran's conditions are met, has moved, each new mine or strike confirms the corridor remains actively contested rather than recovering toward its pre-conflict pace of roughly 125 vessels a day, keeping the existing risk premium in crude oil supported.