Commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz ground to a near-standstill over the weekend, with only five cargo vessels transiting on Saturday and none registered on Sunday, compared to 31 the previous weekend, after attacks on tankers derailed fragile US-Iran negotiations.
The United Arab Emirates reported that three vessels operated by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company were attacked while transiting last week, including one strike on August 12. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Saturday that Washington must meet Iran's conditions regarding the strait before navigation can resume, while the United States countered that it could maintain its naval blockade of Iran indefinitely.
The collapse in traffic marks a sharp reversal from mid-June, when a brief agreement had reopened the waterway — which before the February 28 war carried a fifth of global crude and LNG. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent argued the strait will become "irrelevant" within two years as energy flows shift to pipelines, though no alternative export route currently exists for Qatar's LNG.