Middle East - Persian Gulf

Iran has halted exports of all petrochemical products until further notice to prevent shortages of raw materials and stabilize the domestic market, state-linked media reported.

Iran faces a wave of layoffs in its petrochemical sector and widespread factory closures as a deepening economic crisis and internet shutdowns paralyze businesses, according to reports sent by residents to Iran International.

Iranian police said on Thursday they had blocked 61 bank accounts belonging to users of Starlink satellite internet in the central city of Yazd, as part of a broader crackdown on unauthorized connectivity.

The United Nations Human Rights Council on Wednesday backed a resolution by Persian Gulf states and Jordan condemning Iran’s attacks on regional countries, after their diplomats told the body they faced an “existential threat” from Tehran’s strikes.

Iran is considering charging transit fees on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, a lawmaker said on Thursday, as officials in Tehran stepped up rhetoric over the strategic waterway after this week’s attacks on energy sites in the Persian Gulf.

Tehran’s decision to widen the war is an attempt to project strength but may better be understood as a survival strategy—one rooted in deliberate escalation and shaped by a logic akin to mutually assured destruction.

Iran said on Monday there was no room to discuss a ceasefire while military attacks by the United States and Israel continue.

Iran made a strategic error by expanding its attacks beyond US and Israeli targets to include Persian Gulf states, a move that could pull more countries into the war, former CIA Director David Petraeus told Iran International in an interview on Monday.

Explosions were reported across parts of the Persian Gulf on Saturday after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards launched multiple waves of regional attacks, prompting several countries to activate air defense systems.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday they had seized a tanker in the Persian Gulf carrying millions of litres of smuggled fuel, in the latest maritime interception announced by Tehran in the strategic waterway.

China’s recent backing of the United Arab Emirates’ claims over three Iranian islands in the Persian Gulf has triggered unusually sharp public criticism of Beijing among Tehran’s hardline supporters.

Senior Iranian official Ali Shamkhani cautioned Persian Gulf neighbors after the GCC renewed claims over three Iranian islands and backed Saudi and Kuwaiti ownership of the Arash/Durra gas field, framing the dispute as a test of regional red lines amid post-war tensions.

Iran’s IRGC Navy will launch a two day exercise on Thursday in the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, the Oman Sea and around the country’s southern islands, state media said.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy said it had seized an Eswatini-flagged vessel in the Persian Gulf carrying about 350,000 liters of smuggled gasoil, according to state-linked media.

The crew of an oil products tanker seized by Iran last week are safe and the vessel is now anchored off the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, its technical manager Columbia Shipmanagement said on Monday after Tehran confirmed the seizure.

The United States has reinstated a sanctions waiver allowing India to operate Iran’s Chabahar Port, weeks after Washington revoked the exemption as part of its so-called maximum pressure campaign on Tehran.

ExxonMobil’s return to southern Iraq this month underscores how far Baghdad has surged ahead of Tehran in exploiting their shared border oilfields—and how the two neighbors’ fortunes are diverging.

Iran summoned European ambassadors in Tehran on Wednesday to protest what it called interventionist and baseless remarks made in a joint statement by the European Union and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on its territorial claims and defense policies.