NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. and Israel's war with Iran has thrust the Strait of Hormuz once again into the crosshairs of a geopolitical conflict.
Iran has ground to a halt nearly all traffic in the waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the rest of the globe's oceans, shutting down a critical path for the world’s flow of oil. Attacks on commercial ships and threats of further strikes have stopped nearly all tankers from carrying oil, gas and other goods through the passage. That’s also led to cuts from some of the world’s largest producers, because their crude has nowhere to go.
This is hardly the first time the Strait of Hormuz has been weaponized. Ship seizures and past fighting in the region have raised alarm for commercial ships, at times severely disrupting their ability to sail through. Iran has also repeatedly threatened to close the strait in response to sanctions and other tensions over the years, but stopped short of cutting off traffic entirely. Even with the bulk of traffic halted amid the current war, dozens of vessels have still managed to cross the waterway, according to maritime and trade data platforms.
While Iran and Oman both have territory in the Strait of Hormuz, its narrow shipping channels are viewed as international waters through which all ships can travel. Still, Tehran holds significant influence over the passage through its nearby military presence and control of key islands in the area.
The latest clash, now in its third week after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran and killed its supreme leader, has resulted in major consequences for energy markets: Roughly a fifth of the world's oil traveled through the Strait of Hormuz before the war, and strains on supply have sent fuel prices soaring.
Here are some others instances when traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has been disrupted or threatened.
During a deadly, 8-year-long war between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s, both sides attacked tankers and other vessels in and nearby the Strait of Hormuz, using naval mines to shut down traffic at points. The U.S. also got involved in the so-called Tanker War — with the Navy even fighting a one-day battle against Iran in 1988, and later shooting down an Iranian commercial airliner that it mistook for a fighter jet, killing 290 people.
The strait didn't close completely. And during the war, U.S. ships also escorted Kuwaiti oil tankers to protect them against Iranian attacks. Still, the passageway became incredibly dangerous and shipping was disrupted.
At the end of 2011 and into 2012, Iran threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz in response to new sanctions from the West over its nuclear development program. The European Union began enforcing a ban on purchases of Iranian oil — and the U.S. similarly targeted the country's energy sector while also barring transactions with Iran’s central bank. That later prompted other countries to buy less Iranian oil.
But Iran walked back some of those threats, and its government did not end up closing the Strait of Hormuz. Still, the turbulence and shifts in supply brought swings in oil prices. Brent crude — the international standard — was trading above $100 in December 2011 and for much 2012, peaking at more than $126 per barrel in March 2012, before cooling some later in the year.
In May 2018, during his first term in office, U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from an Obama-era nuclear accord with Iran and began to restore sanctions. Despite some waivers, Trump vowed to eventually cut off all Iranian oil exports. In response, then-Iranian President Hassan Rouhani repeated threats to close the Strait of Hormuz.
But again, Iran did not end up closing the strait. And despite some volatility throughout the year, with particular production pressure on OPEC producers, Brent ended the year trading at nearly $54 a barrel, down from about $75 a barrel when Trump declared the U.S. would be withdrawing in May 2018.
The U.S. Navy blamed Iran for a series of limpet mine attacks on vessels near the strait that damaged tankers in 2019, as well as for a fatal drone attack on an Israeli-linked oil tanker in 2021. Tehran denied involvement at the time. Regardless, such hostilities strained insurance rates and raised fears for shipping companies.
Meanwhile, Iran seized a handful of vessels in the waterway, including several foreign oil tankers it alleged were carrying smuggled fuel at the end of just last year, per state media. The country also captured a Portuguese-flagged cargo ship in 2024 and took two Greek tankers and held them for months in 2022, among other seizures. The strait nonetheless remained open throughout.
Fears about a possible Strait of Hormuz closure also piled up during last year's 12-day war between Israel and Iran, particularly after the U.S. entered the conflict with bombings on three Iranian nuclear and military sites.
But Iran did not close the strait, and oil didn't see lasting price surges. Despite prices jumping some in the early days of the conflict, oil actually saw a notable sell-off as traders doubted the likelihood of attacks on crude shipments. By the war's end, Brent was trading below $67 a barrel, a few dollars less than it was beforehand.
FILE - Liberia-flagged tanker Shenlong Suezmax, carrying crude oil from Saudi Arabia, that arrived clearing the Strait of Hormuz, is seen at the Mumbai Port in Mumbai, India, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool, File)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran intensified its attacks on its Gulf Arab neighbors' energy infrastructure Thursday, setting Qatari liquefied natural gas facilities and a Kuwaiti oil refinery ablaze as it hit back following an Israeli attack on its main natural gas field, a major escalation in the Mideast war that has sent global fuel prices soaring.
A ship burned off the coast of the United Arab Emirates and another was damaged off of Qatar, underscoring the ever-present danger facing vessels due to Iran's stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz.
Qatar, a key source of natural gas for world markets, said firefighters put out a blaze at a major LNG facility after it was hit by Iranian missile attacks. Production had already been halted there after earlier attacks but it said the latest wave of missiles caused “sizeable fires and extensive further damage.”
Damage to the facility could delay Qatar in getting its supplies to the market even after the Iran war ends.
A drone attack on Kuwait's Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery sparked a fire but caused no injuries, the state-run KUNA news agency reported. The refinery is one of the biggest in the Middle East, with a petroleum production capacity of 730,000 barrels per day.
Authorities in Abu Dhabi said they were forced to shut down operations at its Habshan gas facility and Bab field, calling Iranian overnight attacks on the sites a “dangerous escalation.”
Missile alert sirens sounded in multiple other areas around the Gulf, and Israel warned of incoming Iranian fire.
Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all denounced the Iranian attacks, with Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat saying assaults on the kingdom meant “what little trust there was before has completely been shattered.”
In morning trading, Brent crude oil, the international standard, was above $110 a barrel, up more than 50% since Israel and the United States started the war Feb. 28 with strikes on Iran.
The wave of Iranian attacks came after Israel hit South Pars, the world's largest gas field located offshore in the Persian Gulf and owned jointly by Iran and Qatar.
With some 80% of all power generated in Iran coming from natural gas, according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency, the attack directly threatens the country's electricity supplies. Natural gas is also used to supply household heating and cooking across the Islamic Republic.
Hitting the gas field is a “clear expansion of the conflict,” the New York-based Soufan Center said in a research note.
“Israel’s target selection in this war has heavily focused on the institutions, leaders and infrastructure ..." the think tank said. "It now seeks to inflict additional pressure on the regime by making the living conditions for civilians intolerable.”
Iran condemned the strike on South Pars, with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warning of “uncontrollable consequences" that "could engulf the entire world.”
In Washington, President Donald Trump said that Israel would not attack South Pars again, but warned on social media that if Iran continued striking Qatar’s energy infrastructure, the U.S. would retaliate and “massively blow up the entirety” of the field.
“I do not want to authorize this level of violence and destruction because of the long term implications that it will have on the future of Iran,” Trump said on social media.
Qatar Energy said on X that a missile hit on its massive Ras Laffan LNG facility caused the blaze early Thursday.
A ship was also hit off the country's coast, according to the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center. It was not clear whether it was deliberately targeted of was struck by falling debris as Qatar fired off missile interceptors at incoming Iranian barrages.
Saudi Arabia also reported downing Iranian drones targeting its natural gas facilities overnight, and authorities in Abu Dhabi shut down the Habshan gas facility and Bab field after interceptions over the sites.
Another ship was set ablaze early Thursday off the UAE coast. It was also unclear whether it was targeted or hit with debris, the UKMTO said. It said the vessel was just off the coast of Khor Fakkan, near the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is normally shipped.
More than 20 vessels have been attacked during the Iran war so far as Tehran has kept a tight grip on shipping traffic through the waterway, which leads from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean.
Iran insists the waterway is open, just not to the U.S. or its allies, and while some vessels have sailed through, it has only been a trickle.
Iran announced the execution of three men detained in January’s nationwide protests, the first such sentences known to have been carried out, the judiciary's Mizan news agency reported.
The men were accused of stabbing two police officers to death in Qom, some 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of the capital, Tehran, during the protests.
Iran put down the demonstrations with intense violence that killed thousands of people and saw tens of thousands others detained, and activists have warned that authorities might carry out mass executions of those detained.
Iran long has been accused by rights campaigners of extracting coerced confessions from detainees and not allowing them to fully defend themselves in court.
More than 1,300 people in Iran have been killed during the war. Israeli strikes have displaced more than 1 million Lebanese — roughly 20% of the population — according to the Lebanese government, which says 968 people have been killed.
In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian missile fire, including a Thai agricultural worker who died overnight after getting hit with shrapnel. Three people were also killed in the occupied West Bank overnight by an Iranian missile strike, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
At least 13 U.S. military members have been killed.
Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank, and Rising from Bangkok. Associated Press writers Natalie Melzer in Tzukim, Israel, Julie Watson in San Diego and Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut contributed to this report.
FILE - Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib attends the inauguration ceremony of the 6th term of the Assembly of Experts in Tehran, Iran, May 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)
FILE - Commander of Iran's Basij paramilitary force, Gen. Gholam Reza Soleimani, gives a press conference in Tehran, Iran, Nov. 18, 2019. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)
FILE - Ali Larijani, center, head of Iran's National Security Council, gestures as Hezbollah supporters throw rice to welcome him outside Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein, File)
Smoke and flame rise from a residential building following an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Israeli authorities hang Israeli and U.S. flags at the site struck by an Iranian missile that killed two people, in Ramat Gan, Israel, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
