Commercial shipping around the Strait of Hormuz has been pushed back into crisis mode after three vessel attacks in 24 hours triggered major US strikes on Iran and a sharp escalation across the Gulf.
The latest wave of attacks included the Qatari LNG carrier Al Rekayyat and a Saudi-linked VLCC, with another tanker struck by an unknown projectile while transiting just east of the strait. The sequence has reversed the fragile recovery in commercial movements that had been building since last month’s US-Iran ceasefire and shipping access framework.
The Joint Maritime Information Center has now raised the threat level for the Strait of Hormuz to “severe”, warning that “deliberate hostile action” is likely under current conditions. That marks a major deterioration from the already elevated risk environment that had left many owners, charterers and insurers treating every transit as a live security calculation. (....)