\n<\/p>\n
Transit through the Strait of Hormuz appeared to grind to a near standstill on Friday after two more ships were \u200battacked there and the US said it could maintain a naval blockade of Iran indefinitely.<\/strong><\/p>\n A senior Iranian source said on Wednesday that there had been no progress in talks to \u200cbuild on a June agreement to end the war. Since the ceasefire renewed in the June deal broke down, Iran has resumed attacks on ships it accuses of trying to transit the strait without its permission.<\/p>\n The United Arab Emirates\u2019 Abu Dhabi National Oil Company said two of its vessels were attacked transiting the strait on Thursday evening. The UAE government blamed Iran, which made no immediate comment.<\/p>\n Two vessels passed through the narrow waterway on Friday, according to analysis from ship tracking firm \u200bKpler: a grain ship entering Iranian waters and an empty dry bulk ship going in the other direction.<\/p>\n A separate empty liquefied petroleum products tanker was sailing into the Gulf via the \u200bstrait, the data showed. There were no crude oil shipments visible on Friday.<\/p>\n Nine vessels passed through the strait on Thursday, up from five on Wednesday but \u2060below the average of 12 for August.<\/p>\n Some ships may pass through undetected with their transponders off, but the figures are nowhere near the more than 130 ships that traversed the Strait of Hormuz daily \u200bbefore the war launched by the U.S. and Israel on Iran in February.<\/p>\n \u201cAlongside the threat to energy infrastructure in the region, Iran\u2019s ability to restrict shipping through the strait is its main source of leverage in \u200bnegotiations,\u201d said Torbjorn Solvedt, principal Middle East analyst with risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.<\/p>\n US PLEDGES NEW MEASURES AGAINST IRAN IN COMING WEEK<\/strong><\/p>\n U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters the U.S. military has the capability to maintain a naval presence in the region to enforce its retaliatory blockade of Iran, which has inflicted severe economic damage on the country.<\/p>\n \u201cIndefinitely the United States Navy can maintain a blockade like that because we\u2019ll rotate ships in and out, as we have, and we\u2019ll \u200bcontinue to,\u201d Hegseth told reporters during a trip to Panama.<\/p>\n Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the United States planned to inflict more financial damage on Iran.<\/p>\n \u201cWatch this space for more announcements coming next week because we \u200bare going to apply measures like have never been seen in the history of economic isolation on a country,\u201d he said in an interview on Newsmax\u2019s \u201cRob Schmitt Tonight\u201d programme.<\/p>\n U.S. President Donald Trump is under pressure at home to \u200cend an unpopular \u2060war, with high fuel prices dragging down his approval ratings and potentially eroding his party\u2019s control of Congress in midterm elections in November.<\/p>\n Benchmark Brent futures and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were both up slightly at about $87 and $81 a barrel respectively.<\/p>\n India\u2019s reliance on Russian crude surged to a record in July, while refineries in Asia, a major customer for fuel from the Gulf, bought U.S. crude this week to ensure future supplies.<\/p>\n Trump has repeatedly asserted that the U.S. has \u201ctotal control\u201d over the strait, through which a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flowed before the start of the war.<\/p>\n Iran rejects that, and has said it will \u200bnot allow the waterway to reopen until its \u200bconditions are met. These include removing economic sanctions \u2060and releasing frozen Iranian assets.<\/p>\n On Thursday, an Iranian parliamentary committee approved Iran\u2019s plan for the strait. It includes a provision banning the transit of U.S.-, Israeli- and other \u201chostile\u201d countries\u2019 assets and equipment, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.<\/p>\n The U.S. lifted its blockade of Iran\u2019s shipping and ports for a month in mid-June but \u200bhas since reimposed it, cutting off Tehran\u2019s primary source of hard currency and compounding earlier losses from wartime strikes on its energy infrastructure.<\/p>\n Washington previously said \u200bit would lift the Iranian \u2060blockade once Iran and Oman, which sit on either side of the strait, reach an agreement to restore commercial shipping.<\/p>\n SHRINKING OIL SUPPLY<\/strong><\/p>\n Trump has also repeatedly threatened to escalate military strikes and \u201chit Iran hard\u201d, although he has thus far resisted deploying ground troops or seizing strategic islands and bombing desalination plants. Earlier this week, Trump suggested he would rely on economic means, rather than military action.<\/p>\n The U.S. has tightened economic sanctions against Iran and other individuals and \u2060entities that \u200bit says are helping it procure weapons, but the pressure campaign has not brought Tehran back to the negotiating table.<\/p>\n Reports that \u200bYemen\u2019s Iran-backed Houthis had targeted a Saudi Aramco refinery with drones on Thursday renewed concerns about a widening regional war.<\/p>\n Global economists have forecast a sharp drop in global growth, and potentially a swing into recession in some areas, warning that the impact would \u200bgrow if the war was not ended soon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n