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Iran's air defences and Revolutionary Guard naval forces have become the focus of renewed American military action, after Washington accused Tehran of attacking three ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway through which a large share of the world's oil shipments pass. The US also stripped Iran of its right to sell oil openly on international markets, adding an economic dimension to the military one.

This escalation comes at a sensitive moment, during the funeral period for Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who died in late February. That period had been expected to bring calmer relations ahead of planned negotiations, making the exchange of strikes particularly significant. The Strait of Hormuz matters globally because so much oil and gas passes through it, so any conflict there can affect fuel prices and shipping far beyond the region.

The clashes follow a fragile understanding that had paused a wider war between the two countries, and there are concerns that this latest exchange, along with Iranian strikes on US bases in Bahrain and Kuwait, could unravel that arrangement altogether. The situation also has an international backdrop, unfolding while President Trump is attending a NATO summit, underlining how the standoff between the US and Iran continues to draw in allies and interests well beyond the Middle East.