THE US launched strikes on Iran early Tuesday, hours after President Donald Trump vowed to reinstate an American blockade of Iranian ports and charge ships for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran responded with attacks on Middle East allies of the US. The actions leave in tatters an interim deal meant to pause the fighting, reopen a waterway that is a crucial passage for the world’s energy supplies, and give negotiators time to hammer out a permanent end to the war. Instead, fighting has once again engulfed the region and threatened the global economy. Unless a diplomatic solution is found quickly, it could intensify into all-out war. The focus of the conflict now is the strait, through which a fifth of all traded crude oil and natural gas passed in peacetime. Iran effectively shut the passage during the war by attacking and threatening ships -- a tactic that proved its greatest strategic advantage since it sent the price of oil, fertiliser and other goods soaring at a time when world leaders were already struggling to address a rising cost of living. The interim deal was supposed to reopen the waterway, but Iran has attacked some ships moving through the strait. The US has now threatened to reopen the strait by force -- but experts say that will require a much bigger armada if not tens of thousands of American troops on Iranian soil. It’s possible Trump will back down, as he has previously.

 

Attacks resume across the Mideast: The US military’s Central Command said it struck several areas in Iran, targeting “coastal defence systems, missile and drone sites and maritime capabilities.” Iran acknowledged the strikes, but provided no immediate casualty or damage assessments. “These strikes will continue imposing a heavy cost on Iranian forces and degrade their ability to attack innocent civilians and commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” the US military said. Moments after the military announced the new strikes, Trump called it “another major attack” and said the US was “putting the blockade back.” Exchanges of fire in recent days had already cast doubt on the interim peace deal -- now almost halfway through the 60-day period in which negotiators were supposed to agree to a final accord, which also was meant to address Iran’s disputed nuclear programme and other issues. But Trump’s vow to impose a blockade further imperils it. Washington lifted a blockade it imposed in mid-April as part of the deal. The US military said it will resume it at midnight in Dubai. “We are reinstating the THE IRANIAN BLOCKADE,” Trump said on social media. “All other countries will have fair and open use of the Strait.” But thePresident said the US would impose a fee for protecting other ships: 20 per cent of the value of cargo to help cover “any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security.”