February 28, when “Israel and the US launched a joint air campaign against Iran, killing the country’s supreme leader along with several other top officials”. “Iran — it hit back with missiles and drones, targeting Israel, US military bases, and countries allied with Washington across the Middle East”. It also shut down the Strait of Hormuz, a move that immediately rattled global oil markets.
Since then, this conflict has gone through more ceasefires than most people can keep track of. A truce was announced in late June, extended indefinitely by April, and eventually formalized into a 14-point agreement signed on June 17. That deal reopened the Strait of Hormuz, lifted the US naval blockade, and even dangled sanctions relief in front of Iran. For a while, it looked like things might actually calm down.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard struck three commercial vessels near Oman in early July, including a Qatari gas tanker, and that was enough to blow the ceasefire apart. The US responded with two rounds of strikes, hitting more than 170 targets across Iran.
Trump, speaking at the NATO summit in Ankara, said flatly that the ceasefire was over, calling Iranian leadership “scum” and “sick people.” Iran fired back with drone and missile attacks on US bases and Gulf allies, wounding people in Kuwait and setting off alerts in Bahrain and Qatar.
More than two weeks later, the fighting hasn’t stopped. The US has carried out strikes on Iran for 13 straight nights. Iran’s Foreign Ministry has accused Washington of war crimes. Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has slowed to a crawl.
The conflict is also affecting neighboring countries, with regional tensions rising after Saudi military operations against Houthi positions following renewed Red Sea shipping attacks. Read our full coverage in Saudi Military Strikes Houthi Targets in Yemen After Red Sea Shipping Attacks.
As for what each side is threatening: Iran’s message has mostly come through its state-linked media and military statements, warning that any country accusing it of blocking shipping is ignoring who actually struck first. Tehran has also kept up strikes on US allies in the region — Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait — as a way of showing Washington its reach extends well beyond its own borders.
Trump has floated the idea of a “massive attack” if Iran doesn’t back down, while also insisting Tehran is “getting more serious” about reaching a deal — two messages that don’t exactly line up with each other. The Pentagon, meanwhile, has confirmed at least four American service members killed in the latest wave of fighting.
Oil prices have pushed past $100 a barrel, the highest level in years, as roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and gas trade normally passes through the Strait of Hormuz. Gulf states are now looking at billion-dollar pipeline alternatives just to avoid depending on that route. Shipping companies are rerouting or simply refusing to sail through the region.
Foreign governments have issued travel warnings for Kuwait and Bahrain. And back in Washington, the US House actually voted this week to direct Trump to end the war, with a handful of Republicans breaking ranks to join Democrats — a sign that even domestic political support isn’t fully behind an open-ended conflict anymore.
Diplomats haven’t given up completely. Officials from both sides have reportedly met to discuss where things go from here, and Trump has said an exit could come “diplomatically or militarily.” But for now, neither side has blinked, and the war that was supposed to have ended months ago is still very much active.
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