A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The United States has a stark warning for any ship trying to circumvent its blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DAN CAINE: Turn around, or prepare to be boarded. If you do not comply with this blockade, we will use force.
MARTÍNEZ: The chairman of joint chiefs of staff, General Dan Caine, said that 13 ships have, so far, turned around since the U.S. began its blockade of Iranian ports on Monday. Iran is also choking off the waterway. So the bulk of the Gulf's oil and gas remains stuck, unable to reach the rest of the world. In a few minutes, we'll hear from an expert in global energy policy about the country's ability to get around the blockade. We start, though, with the details.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Joining us to discuss the latest is NPR's international correspondent Aya Batrawy in Dubai. Good morning, Aya.
AYA BATRAWY, BYLINE: Good morning, Leila.
FADEL: OK, what's the latest on the blockade and the blockade back?
BATRAWY: Right. So after the U.S. and Israel launched war on Iran in late February, Iran effectively shut down the Strait of Hormuz. And that left hundreds of tankers stranded in Gulf waters. And then Iran took control of that narrow waterway, allowing only a few ships a day to transit, in coordination with its armed forces. But now not even those ships are moving beyond the strait because the U.S. is now positioned at its mouth in the Gulf of Oman blocking Iranian cargo ships. I want you to have a listen to audio release by CENTCOM of the Navy enforcing this blockade.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: Do not attempt to breach the blockade. Vessels will be boarded for interdiction and seizure transiting to or from an Iranian port. Turn around and prepare to be boarded. If you do not comply with this blockade, we will use force. The whole of the United States Navy is ready to force compliance.
FADEL: With the strait blockaded, what does this mean for energy markets and consumers right now?
BATRAWY: The price of oil has shot up around 40% from what it was before the war. And Iranian accounts, these official accounts on X and social media, are trolling the president about this. One of those accounts, Iran's embassy in Thailand, actually wrote Trump 2028, but they wrote it as $20.28 a gallon. So really just referring to, like, how those prices continue to climb. And throughout the war, there were more than 80 attacks on energy facilities and refineries across the region from Iran to Israel, to Iraq and Gulf Arab states.
And analysts tell me this is the biggest energy crisis in history. They point to a loss of some 13 million barrels of oil a day because of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Ellen Wald, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Global Energy Center and author of "Saudi, Inc.," a book about the state-owned Aramco oil giant, says there is a severe supply chain crisis now around the world in fertilizers, aluminum, liquefied natural gas, polymers, plastics, even diesel needed for the construction industry and agriculture. All of this from the hydrocarbon industry and that energy that's stuck in the Gulf right now.
ELLEN WALD: A lot of those products are made in the Middle East. And so even if we don't see shortages of it, particularly, we're going to see prices increasing because of it.
BATRAWY: And she says, although Americans are paying more for gas now and haven't felt it in other ways like other countries have, she says prices across much of the economy will go up the longer that this goes on.
FADEL: Is there any chance this ends soon in some kind of agreement between the U.S. and Iran where they agree to extend the two-week ceasefire that ends Wednesday of next week?
BATRAWY: Right, so there's a lot of diplomatic efforts behind the scenes. Pakistan is the key mediator now, and its prime minister is on a regional tour to shore up support. And today, Pakistan's army chief, who's been leading the talks, is in Iran for meetings there. But the White House, which called this operation on Iran Operation Epic Fury, now is calling it Operation Economic Fury, saying they're targeting Iran's assets and its banking.
But look, Iran is digging in. There's still no agreement on nuclear enrichment. And, Leila, all of this is happening while Israel's war in Lebanon against the Iran-backed Hezbollah continues, killing dozens of people daily, many of them civilians. And Israel's prime minister just yesterday said he wants to extend Israel's occupation of Lebanese territory eastward to where Israel is already holding Syrian territory.
FADEL: That's NPR's Aya Batrawy in Dubai. Thank you so much for your reporting, Aya.
BATRAWY: Thanks, Leila. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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