Oil tops $90 as Iran warns Hormuz 'will not be safe'

The conflict between Iran and the United States entered its 10th day on Monday as Tehran warned that "not a single drop" of oil or gas would pass through the Strait of Hormuz, sending oil prices higher amid the continued disruption to shipping through the strategic waterway.

What happened: The latest escalation came after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned Monday that the strait would remain unsafe for commercial shipping as long as US "aggression" continued.  

In a statement, the IRGC said, "This passage will not be safe for the transit of petrochemical products, nor even a single drop of oil and gas."

The strategic waterway between Iran, Oman and the United Arab Emirates typically carries around a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas shipments during peacetime.

Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, traded at $88.44 a barrel at 8:25 a.m. EDT on Monday, up 0.38% on the day and 13.57% over the past month. Prices briefly climbed as high as $91.01 earlier in the session.

Iran continued its attacks on Monday in retaliation for US strikes targeting bridges and electrical infrastructure in southern Iran. In a statement early on Monday, the IRGC said it had launched ballistic missiles at US aircraft at Jordan's Aqaba Airport. It also claimed two tankers had exploded after attempting what it described as an unsafe route through the Strait of Hormuz. The IRGC alleged the vessels had been encouraged by the US Navy to use the passage but provided no details about the ships, their flags, crews or casualties, Reuters reported.

The militaries of Bahrain and Kuwait said on Sunday that they were responding to Iranian aerial attacks. 

In Bahrain, host of the US Fifth Fleet, the military said in a statement that its air defenses “confronted, intercepted, and destroyed a number of treacherous Iranian aerial attacks.” 

Kuwaiti authorities reported that an Iranian attack on a power and water plant in the country caused a fire on Sunday for the second day in a row. Kuwait's Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy said in a statement on X on Sunday, “As a result of the heinous Iranian aggression on Kuwait, a power and water distillation plant, for the second time in two days, has been subjected to an attack that caused a fire in some facilities of the station."

Meanwhile, in the latest confirmed US military action, US Central Command said it completed its ninth consecutive night of strikes against Iran by 10 p.m. EDT Sunday.

According to CENTCOM, the strikes targeted Iranian military command centers, air defense and coastal surveillance sites, maritime assets, missile and drone launch facilities and communications networks "to further diminish Iran's ability to attack commercial vessels and civilian mariners transiting the Strait of Hormuz."

In a separate statement, CENTCOM said one US service member was killed and another injured on Saturday while attempting to dispose of unexploded munitions from a previously downed Iranian suicide drone. The injured service member sustained minor wounds and remains under medical care.

The US Department of Defense identified the two service members killed on Friday as 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas. They were killed in an Iranian attack on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan.

Why it matters: Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remained severely disrupted. On Sunday, only eight vessels passed through the waterway — a three-week low — down from 15 the previous week, according to shipping analytics firm Kpler. Before the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Feb. 28, between 130 and 140 vessels passed through the strait each day.

The disruption has maintained upward pressure on oil prices, though they remain well below their peak earlier this year. Brent crude nearly reached $115 a barrel in early May amid fears of prolonged supply disruptions before retreating following an April truce. Prices fell further after the June 17 interim agreement between Washington and Tehran temporarily reopened the Strait of Hormuz and eased concerns over global energy supplies. Renewed fighting since July 7 has once again driven ships away from the waterway and raised oil prices.

Know more: Despite the interim deal being abandoned, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Monday that mediators had presented Tehran with a proposal for de-escalating the conflict and reviving the memorandum of understanding signed in June. The proposal includes an end to hostilities across all fronts, including Lebanon.