Oil prices have surged to their highest level in a month as renewed hostilities between the United States and Iran continued for a third consecutive day, dampening hopes for a return to normality in the Strait of Hormuz.

Brent crude, the primary international benchmark, rose 2.8 percent on Tuesday, extending a 9.6 percent gain from the previous day.

Brent futures for September delivery stood at $85.67 a barrel as of 07:00 GMT, the highest since June 15.

After easing to pre-conflict levels following Washington and Tehran’s signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for peace last month, Brent has risen 18 percent from its price before the start of the US-Israel war on Iran in late February.

The US Central Command on Monday announced strikes on Iran for a third day, saying its forces targeted Tehran’s ability to attack “innocent civilians and commercial shipping” in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it hit two oil supertankers in the strait and launched missile and drone strikes against US military assets in Kuwait and Bahrain in retaliation for the attacks.

Adding to the market volatility, President Donald Trump said on Monday the US would reimpose its blockade of Iranian ports and begin charging vessels transit fees as the “guardian” of the critical waterway.

“Crude oil is fast losing its strategic petroleum reserve buffer, and a violent repricing up cannot be discounted until the market sees toned-down rhetoric from both parties,” June Goh, a senior oil market analyst at Sparta Commodities in Singapore, told Al Jazeera, referring to the US government’s emergency oil stockpile, which the Trump administration has drawn on to mitigate supply constraints.

After ticking up in recent weeks amid hopes for a permanent peace deal between Washington and Tehran, traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has plummeted amid the renewed threat of violence against commercial shipping.

A total of 57 transits were recorded from Friday through Sunday, a more than 50 percent drop compared with the previous week, according to ship-tracking platform MarineTraffic.

Roughly 130 vessels transited the strait daily before the US and Israel launched their initial strikes on Iran in late February.

“Traffic through Hormuz is grinding to a halt, back to – or even below – our immediate pre-MoU pace,” Rory Johnston, founder of oil market research firm Commodity Context, told Al Jazeera.

“The oil market has proven extremely patient through this crisis, in large part thanks to an ample stock cushion upon which we were able to draw to blunt the sharpness of the supply shock,” Johnston said.

“Unfortunately, much of that cushion has now been depleted, leaving us much more vulnerable to a rerun of March and April.”

[Aljazeera]

England will make a late decision on whether Declan Rice is fit to start the World Cup semi-final against Argentina.

But there remains optimism the Arsenal midfielder can shake off the effects of an illness to play on Wednesday.

Rice, who suffered with a sickness bug in the lead-up to Saturday’s quarter-final victory over Norway in Miami, was substituted at half-time.

Head coach Thomas Tuchel admitted afterwards that Rice had spent three days in bed before the match, which England won 2-1 after extra time.

It is understood Rice still has not recovered fully from the illness – picked up in Mexico, where England beat the co-hosts 3-2 in the last 16 – but his condition has improved markedly over the past 48 hours.

As things stand, there is growing hope he will be well enough to start in Atlanta.

Rice is almost certain to rule himself fit for the semi-final given the enormity of the occasion.

But given the severity of the illness, England medics are set to make a late call on his availability.

And Tuchel will wait to see how rapidly his condition improves before making a final decision on whether to pick him.

In addition to his recovery from the sickness bug, Rice has also been carrying a neural problem for several months, affecting his lower back and hamstring.

The midfielder, who has 78 caps, has started all but one of England’s World Cup games so far, missing the 2-0 group-stage win over Panama because of an injury flare-up.

[BBC]

The US military says it has launched a third consecutive night of strikes against Iran, hours before a reinstated naval blockade of Iranian ports takes effect, as Washington and Tehran both stake claims to control the Strait of Hormuz.

US Central Command, the military’s regional command known as CENTCOM, said its latest strikes began at 4:45pm ET (20:45 GMT) on Monday, and were aimed at degrading Iran’s capacity to attack “innocent civilians and commercial shipping” in the strait.

Iranian state television and semi-official news agencies reported explosions throughout the night across the country’s southern coast, including the port city of Bandar Abbas, and on Kish and Qeshm islands, as well as the town of Jam in Bushehr province.

A projectile that struck western Bandar Abbas caused no casualties, the Fars news agency reported, citing the regional governor’s office.

Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that Iranian forces had struck several “violating” vessels in the strait, and that a US-made drone had been shot down near Bandar Abbas.

The United Arab Emirates said that two of its oil tankers had been hit by Iranian cruise missiles in Omani waters in the Strait of Hormuz. The UAE added that one Indian national crew member had been killed on one of the tankers, and that eight other people were wounded.

For its part, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had also launched a wider retaliatory campaign against US allies and interests across the Gulf.

The Iranian army said on Monday that it had carried out a drone attack on US military targets in Kuwait. In a statement posted by state broadcaster IRIB, the army said it launched drones at a US Patriot missile system, fuel tanks, a watchtower, an ammunition depot and communication systems.

[Aljazeera]