Iran and US lash out on tankers in Hormuz, driving oil prices past $100

An Israeli strike killed one person in Lebanon's south, Lebanon's National News Agency said on Wednesday, in a region where Israel has intensified attacks despite a ceasefire.

An Israeli drone targeted a motorcycle in Zebdine in the Nabatieh region, killing a man, NNA reported.

Since announcing last week the capture of the Ali al-Taher ridge, a strategic position formerly controlled by Hezbollah in Nabatieh, the Israeli army has stepped up its strikes in the area.

The attacks have killed at least 29 people since Friday, including 12 members of the same family, according to Lebanese authorities and official media.

Fighting in Lebanon had calmed since a US-Iran memorandum of understanding and a framework agreement between Israel and Lebanon were reached in June.

But Beirut still reports recurring Israeli strikes, which it says have killed more than 4,300 people in total since March, and Israeli forces continue to occupy a so-called "security zone" in the south.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday expressed concern about the Israeli "escalation" in southern Lebanon, according to his spokesperson.

In an online petition posted this week, nearly 400 Lebanese public figures, including legal experts and human rights advocates, called for Lebanon's army to be deployed in Nabatieh.

They also voiced concern over a possible "expansion of the Israeli occupation" toward the city, which is about 11 kilometres (seven miles) from the Israeli border.

"This city does not belong to any political group," added the signatories, referring to Hezbollah, which is well established in Nabatieh.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the Lebanese army said its units were "deployed in all areas that Israel does not occupy, particularly in the Nabatieh region".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a visit to Israeli troops in southern Syria on Wednesday that Iran's Islamic republic was on the verge of collapse, as fighting in the six-month Middle East war intensifies.

"There is still work to be done -- the main task is to bring down the terror regime in Iran. We are very close to that. We know that the entire axis will ultimately collapse," he said on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon on the Israel-Syria border during a visit with Defence Minister Israel Katz.

In southern Syria, Israeli forces have occupied land beyond the Golan Heights since the fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.

They have moved into what was previously a buffer zone patrolled by the United Nations that had separated Israeli and Syrian forces in the Israeli-occupied Golan since 1974.

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria since the fall of Assad and made repeated incursions into Syrian territory.

Netanyahu's threats against Iran come as Tehran and Washington are locked in a stalemate over the strategic Strait of Hormuz, with both sides trading attacks in the past week, six months into the war that the US and Israel launched against Iran at the end of February.

Wall Street stocks fell early Wednesday as Brent oil futures topped $100 a barrel, adding to worries that inflation could prompt Federal Reserve interest rate hikes.

Brent futures moved above $100 a barrel for the first time since the end of July on escalations in the US-Iran war as Iran responded to US attacks that destroyed five Iranian oil tankers.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they attacked two US vessels, eight oil tankers, and 10 "non-compliant vessels" that were trying to pass through the strait, Iranian state media reported.

"The market isn't just pricing today's disruption, it's pricing the odds of more disruption to come," said a note from Mark Malek, chief investment officer at Siebert Financial.

About 20 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.6 percent at 52,462.43.

The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 0.3 percent to 7,654.57, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index also shed 0.3 percent to 26,335.73.

Futures markets have now placed about 60 percent odds that the Fed will lift interest rates later this month.

"That leaning is detracting from buying interest at the moment and a more cautious-minded stance on stocks," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare.

According to Israeli media, Benjamin Netanyahu went into occupied Mount Hermon in Syria together with Defence Minister Israel Katz.

Netanyahu reportedly boasted: "We will not allow any terrorist army to establish itself on our border. The main task is to defeat the terrorist regime in Iran."

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday that the war with the United States could end if Washington stopped threatening the Islamic republic and met Tehran's conditions, including regarding its nuclear programme.

"If the enemy wants an end to this situation, it must, while completely stopping the war, refrain from renewed threats, withdraw the Israeli regime's army from Lebanon, end the blockade of Yemen, release $24 billion in Iran's frozen assets and refrain from any interference in the country's nuclear and missile capabilities," IRGC Spokesman Hossein Mohebi said, according to the Fars news agency.

A seafarer was killed in an incident involving the Gibraltar-flagged oil products tanker Hercules Star while at anchorage off Dubai, the vessel’s charterer Peninsula said on Wednesday.

"It is with deep sadness and regret that we confirm one fatality," Peninsula said in a statement without providing details on what caused the death.

"In addition, one member of the crew is missing and a specialist team is working to locate them. All other crew members are accounted for."

According to initial assessments from maritime security sources, the vessel may have been hit by drone.

British navy-affiliated agency UKMTO said separately that it had received a report of a vessel listing 24 nautical miles off the United Arab Emirates' Port Rashid while at anchor, "possibly indicating water ingress following an attack from an unknown projectile".

The location was close to the Hercules Star, maritime security sources said, according to their assessments.

A tanker carrying about 2 million barrels of Iraqi fuel oil was struck by a drone in Iraqi territorial waters on Wednesday, port officials said.

Saba reported from the Executive Unit for the Management of Displaced Persons' Camps in Yemen that 1,367 new families were displaced from the governorates of Taiz, Hodeidah, and Lahj during 8 September, in light of the continuing military escalation, bringing the total number of displaced families observed in the three governorates from 4,778 families as of 7 September to 6,145 families.

The new displacement cases were distributed as such: 988 families in Taiz, 354 in Hodeidah, and 25 in Lahj.

Palestinian media reports an Israeli strike on a building in Gaza City’s Shati camp a short while ago, following a warning issued by the military.

Earlier, Lebanon’s civil defence agency confirmed one person has been killed in an Israeli attack on the outskirts of the town of Harouf in southern Lebanon.

The European Union (EU) called on the Houthi group to immediately stop all its attacks inside and outside Yemen.

The EU's ambassador to Yemen, Patrick Simonet, said in a statement published on his account on the "X" platform: "We call on the Houthis to stop all their attacks inside and outside Yemen immediately," stressing the EU's firm commitment to supporting the Yemeni people and government.

Iran's foreign ministry on Wednesday strongly condemned US strikes on its oil tankers, describing the attacks the previous day as a threat to regional security.

"The aggressive actions by the United States against Iranian commercial vessels not only increase the dangers of tensions in the region but are also considered an overt threat to regional and international peace and security," the ministry said in a statement, adding that Iranian forces had targeted US military facilities in the region in "self-defence".

The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said it received a report of another attack on a cargo ship off of Iraq.

The vessel was hit by a projectile 52km (28 nautical miles) southeast of al-Faw, Iraq, said UKMTO.

"The master of a tanker has reported being struck by an unknown projectile. Crew are reported safe and there is no environmental impact reported at this time," UKMTO said in a statement.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday a maritime restricted area would extend from Chabahar in Iran into parts of the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, with its precise coordinates to be announced.

The announcement follows comments on Sunday by Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, who was quoted by state media as saying Iran would establish a restricted zone outside the Strait of Hormuz in the coming days.

Netanyahu is resisting key parts of Trump's Gaza plan as elections loom, exposing a wider struggle over who will control the territory after the war, writes Ahmed Abu-Qamra.

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Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday that a Sunni cleric was killed in a northwestern province, labelling it an attempt by separatist groups to sow divisions between Sunnis and Shias.

It was not immediately clear when the incident took place but the Guards said the cleric, Mohammad Nezhati, was "unjustly martyred in a brutal terrorist crime committed by Zionist-American separatist groups".

The Guards added that Nezhati was also member of the volunteer paramilitary Basij forces which operates under the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the ideological arm of Iran's military.

The term "separatist groups" is often used by Iranian authorities to describe Kurdish opposition groups based in Iraq's Kurdistan region, which Tehran has long accused of links to the United States and Israel.

"This crime was not only an attack on a prominent figure, but also a desperate attempt to create division among Muslims, undermine unity between Shias and Sunnis, and deprive society of security and peace," the Guards said in a statement.

Iran has been at war with the United States since February 28, when US-Israeli attacks killed the country's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Shia-majority Iran has sizeable Sunni communities particularly in its western and southeastern provinces.

Several merchant vessels in the northern Gulf and Gulf of Oman were hit by disabling fire during military activity in the region overnight, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said on Wednesday.

The British navy-affiliated UKMTO said it was unable to confirm any casualties or environmental impact.

Separately, UKMTO reported another incident on Wednesday, 24 nautical miles from Port Rashid, in the United Arab Emirates. It said a vessel was sighted listing while at anchor, possibly indicating it had taken on water following an attack by an unknown projectile.

On Tuesday, US Central Command forces destroyed five Iranian crude oil tankers following attempted missile attacks on a US Navy warship over the previous two days.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday they had attacked two U.S. vessels and eight oil tankers in the Gulf in response to the US attack on the Iranian tankers.

The Guards said the 10 vessels had attempted to cross an area of the Strait of Hormuz that they described as "prohibited and unsafe".

Pakistan said Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar conducted a telephone call with his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty as US-Iran attacks ramp up in the region.

The Foreign Ministry affirmed the need for "close consultations", which include Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and agreed to hold a meeting on the sidelines of the upcoming UN General Assembly in New York City.

Pakistan has been a key mediator in the US-Iran conflict, and Islamabad brokered a ceasefire that began on 8 April, temporarily halting the fighting.

Dozens of South Koreans urged their government on Wednesday not to deploy troops to the strategic Strait of Hormuz, slamming what they called Washington's "illegal war".

The protesters across from the large US embassy compound in Seoul waved signs saying "Do not join a war of aggression" as their leaders weigh a "contribution" to the waterway's security.

US President Donald Trump has pressured ally South Korea to help in the Middle East war, which has seen Iran take a stranglehold on the strait key to global oil supplies.

"We cannot send our young people into a sea of death!" chanted the protesters, who numbered about 60 according to an AFP estimate, on the steps outside Seoul's Sejong Center for the Performing Arts.

The protest came a day after South Korean defence authorities said they had sent a fact-finding mission to assess the situation in Hormuz, while stressing that no decision had been made on any deployment.

South Korea said Friday it was considering "contributions" to US security efforts along the strait provided that its own military readiness was not compromised.

Iran has warned that any South Korean deployment would be "regarded as direct support for the party responsible for that aggression and will have serious consequences".

Oil futures rose past $100 a barrel for the first time since 24 July.

Brent crude futures rose $2.15, or 2.2 percent, to $100.07 a barrel by 07:21 GMT, while ⁠US West Texas Intermediate crude was up $1.70, or 1.83 percent, at $94.73 a barrel.

Oil prices jumped more than one percent towards $100 Wednesday and stocks struggled as a fresh flare-up in the US-Israeli war on Iran stoked supply concerns, putting upward pressure on inflation ahead of key data at the end of the week.

With the US-Israeli war on Iran now in its seventh month and showing no sign of calming despite White House claims of an imminent deal, investors are growing increasingly anxious that the Federal Reserve will have to hike interest rates to cap surging consumer prices.

The two foes are locked in a stalemate six months into the war, with Tehran maintaining a stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route for the world's oil and gas, and Washington pushing a campaign to choke the Islamic republic's ports and economy.

Iran said Wednesday it had struck a US military base in Jordan following American attacks on its vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, which itself was in retaliation for ballistic missile launches at a US warship.

Tehran also said it would target oil tankers off Kuwait and Bahrain and urged crews to leave their ships, according to the IRNA state news agency.

That came after Saudi Arabia and Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen exchanged strikes, with the rebels targeting oil facilities in an offensive towards the Red Sea's Bab al-Mandab chokepoint.

The waterway is an increasingly important route for Saudi oil with the Strait of Hormuz shut.

Both main crude contracts jumped more than one percent Wednesday, with Brent hitting as high as $99.68 and a whisker away from the $100 last touched in July. West Texas Intermediate was heading towards $95 for the first time since June.

The surge in energy costs has kept inflation elevated globally and is putting pressure on central banks to hike borrowing costs, with the European Central Bank tipped to do so Thursday.

All focus is on the release of the US consumer price index Friday, which is seen as the key to whether the Fed lifts rates next week or not.

Saudi Arabia's Civil Defense said on Wednesday that the danger in Khamis Mushait had passed, after earlier issuing alerts warning of a potential threat.

Yemen's Houthis said on Tuesday they had attacked an airbase in the area, which lies in the south of the kingdom.

Strait of Hormuz shipping traffic remains low and below normal levels.

Six commodity vessels transited the waterway on Tuesday, down from nine the day earlier and below the 10-day average of about 12, Reuters reports, citing Kpler data.

Houthi-run Al Masirah TV reported that Saudi Arabia carried out a series of air strikes across Marib, al-Jawf, and Taiz governorates.

It said five air strikes targeted the Khab wa Sha’af district in al-Jawf, 10 other air attacks targeted areas in the Sirwah district of Marib, and five hit the al-Barh area in Taiz.

In Saada, Al Masirah TV reported that Saudi forces bombed Ghor al-Mishwat in the Ghamr border district.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard announced that its naval forces had targeted two US ships and eight oil tankers in the Gulf in retaliation for US attacks on five Iranian oil tankers in the region.

In a statement, the Guard added that the Iranian attacks caused "severe damage" to the vessels. The statement also noted the targeting of ten "violating" ships that were attempting to traverse a restricted and unsafe area of ​​the Strait of Hormuz under the direction and support of the US military.