The Strait of Hormuz has once again taken center stage in the unjustified U.S.-Israel war on Iran, with renewed strikes around the narrow waterway connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman, which opens into the Arabian Sea. 

Despite the 14-point Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), under which Iran agreed to use its best efforts to provide safe, toll-free commercial passage for 60 days and to discuss the strait’s future administration with Oman, the U.S. attempted to establish an alternative shipping route outside Iranian control.

The U.S. also carried out new attacks on Iranian military systems around the strait. U.S. officials said the strikes targeted Iranian missile, drone, naval and coastal-defense systems in an effort to reopen the strait and reduce threats to commercial shipping. On July 13, President Donald Trump formally notified Congress that the conflict had resumed, although renewed U.S. strikes and Iranian counter strikes had begun earlier.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps declared the strait “closed until further notice” on July 12. Iranian officials subsequently said restrictions would remain until U.S. intervention ended.

“The Strait of Hormuz was open before the war. Commercial traffic moved freely through it. What disrupted that traffic was the decision to wage war against Iran. To now invoke ‘the global economy’ as a justification for more force is beyond hypocrisy,” Reza Nasri, an international lawyer and foreign policy analyst, said in a post on X.

He cited the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, an international treaty the U.S. has not ratified. The convention generally protects transit passage through straits used for international navigation and provides that such passage shall not be impeded. Separate rules governing armed conflict at sea permit belligerents to inspect, divert or target particular vessels under limited circumstances when they contribute to military operations.

“A waterway that carries commerce deserves protection. A waterway transformed into a military supply corridor, arming and equipping foreign bases in the Persian Gulf littoral states so they can be used against another littoral state, is something else entirely,” Mr. Nasri argued. A littoral state is a sovereign country with a coastline bordering an ocean or sea.

Iranian political analyst and University of Tehran professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi characterized Iran as “the victim of aggression.”

“Trump violated the MOU, not Iran. Iran hasn’t taken anyone for ransom, but it won’t let oil from regimes that helped Trump/Netanyahu wage war pass through the Strait until the MoU is implemented. Pipelines take years and vast funding to build,” he said in a post on X.

In a July 13 statement, Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned what it described as the U.S. government’s acts of aggression.

“Although only 25 days have passed since the signing of the Memorandum on the Termination of the War, the U.S. regime has openly violated every component of that agreement and, by attacking Iran’s transportation infrastructure, fishing boats, cargo vessels, meteorological facilities, and related buildings, has committed some of the most heinous war crimes,” the statement said. The Foreign Ministry also accused the U.S. of causing insecurity to return to the strait and disrupting international commercial shipping.

Iran launched retaliatory missile and drone attacks toward U.S. military facilities in Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Amid the dispute, the Pakistan-mediated Memorandum of Understanding signed on June 17 has largely unraveled, and diplomatic negotiations have stalled. The agreement called for the immediate and permanent termination of military operations and was supposed to end the months of fighting.

In a July 14 letter to the United Nations, Iran accused the U.S. of violating the memorandum. According to Press TV, a state-owned news network in Iran, the letter documented 42 alleged breaches and called for the UN Security Council to take “immediate, effective and decisive measures” against the U.S.

In the letter, Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran’s permanent representative to the UN, declared that the U.S. “is the aggressor—not the victim,” and stated that the U.S. began undermining the agreement “almost immediately” after signing. The alleged breaches included repeated military attacks against Iran’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, the unlawful revocation of licenses for Iranian oil sales, interference with Iran’s arrangements for the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. government’s failure to prevent Israel’s continued military aggression in Lebanon and new sanctions.

The Strait of Hormuz is a major oil chokepoint lying between Iran and Oman. Before the war, more than one-quarter of global seaborne oil trade and roughly one-fifth of global liquefied-natural-gas trade passed through the strait. The U.S. and Iran have both exchanged strikes in or around the strait.

In a July 13 post on Truth Social, President Donald Trump claimed that the U.S. would stop Iran’s ships and customers from entering or leaving the strait and said the U.S. would be “THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT.” He also threatened charging a 20% fee on non-Iranian cargo receiving U.S.-protected passage through the strait.

Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, quickly challenged the president’s assertion that the U.S. would serve as the strait’s guardian.

“POTUS is absolutely right. Whoever provides secure and safe passage of commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz should be compensated for this service. Iran has always been the GUARDIAN of the Strait and will remain so FOREVER. 20% is of course too much. We will be fair,” he said in a post on X.

President Trump abandoned the proposed fee the following day, citing “highly productive conversations” with Middle Eastern leaders and saying Gulf states would instead make major investments in the U.S. The separate U.S. blockade of Iranian shipping remained in effect. Iran, which had established an authorization system for commercial passage, continued limiting vessels to approved routes. 

Iranian media outlets have accused the U.S. of striking civilian facilities, including an environmental ranger post and other infrastructure, and have reported civilian deaths. Iran also condemned the U.S. for striking near Shahid Baqaei Hospital, a children’s cancer treatment center in the southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz, on July 15.

“This barbaric attack, reminiscent of Israel’s atrocities against healthcare facilities, caused severe suffering and anxiety upon the hospitalized children, and forced the emergency evacuation of 211 patients undergoing chemotherapy,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said in a post on X. “This constitutes a cowardly war crime against the most innocent of human beings—children who are bravely fighting for their lives. Those who ceaselessly preach human rights, yet deliberately turn a blind eye to the targeting of hospitals and health centers, have forfeited every shred of moral credibility.”

President Trump threatened future attacks on Iranian power plants and bridges unless Tehran returned to negotiations. According to Press TV, Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Military Headquarters warned in a July 16 statement that if the U.S. government’s threats are carried through, Iran would attack infrastructure throughout the region. The military command’s spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Ebrahim Zolfaqari called U.S. interference in the Strait of Hormuz an “inviolable red line.”

Iran’s Health Ministry reported that more than 300 people had been injured and 35 killed by midday July 15 in what it called the latest wave of U.S. aggression.

Several countries have expressed diplomatic support for Iran while also calling for de-escalation.

Russia warned that any attack on Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant would constitute “a crime and a gross violation of international law.” Iran and Russia have also called for faster implementation of their Comprehensive Strategic Partnership agreements, including economic, energy, industrial and infrastructure projects.

China has argued that the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, subsequent sanctions and military action contributed to the current crisis. At recent UN Security Council briefings, Chinese Ambassador Sun Lei called for Iran’s sovereignty and right to peaceful nuclear energy to be respected, an end to attacks and threats and the restoration of safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

Abu Mujahid al-Assaf, the security chief of Iraq’s Kata’ib Hezbollah, said resistance groups would participate “immediately and decisively” if war broke out against Iran, according to Press TV.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Iran had no current plans for negotiations and remained focused on defending the country amid continued U.S. attacks.

by Anisah Muhammad Staff Writer @MuhammadAnisah