US blockade pushes Iranian tankers toward Asian waters - UANI

Oil prices fell for a third straight day on Tuesday as hopes that the Strait of Hormuz could reopen weighed on crude markets and raised the prospect of more supply reaching global markets, Reuters reported.

Brent crude futures fell more than 2% to $86.41 a barrel as investors assessed the prospect of increased oil flows through the Strait.

The drop in oil prices also helped push bond yields lower, with the yield on 10-year US Treasury notes at 4.634% after falling 6.5 basis points on Tuesday, the report added.

Iran’s ambassador and deputy permanent representative to the UN, Gholamhossein Dehghani called on governments to reject and condemn US unilateral sanctions and warned that Tehran reserves the right to pursue accountability, compensation and other measures in response to what he called continued US aggression.

Speaking at a UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday, Dehghani said Iran also retains its right to self-defense under international law and, as a coastal state of the Strait of Hormuz, can take measures it considers necessary in response to attacks on its territory and sovereignty, official media reported.

“US naval blockade and attacks on Iranian commercial vessels violated Iran’s sovereignty, freedom of navigation and international maritime law,” Dehghani said. “Washington is using food, energy and trade as tools of pressure and war.”

A former US diplomat said on Tuesday the United States should maintain economic and military pressure on Iran until the Islamic Republic collapses, adding diplomatic efforts failed to contain Tehran and that the war weakened Iran’s economy and leadership.

“Trump administration should combine sanctions enforcement, military pressure and diplomacy with regional partners to keep pressure on Tehran,” Ludovic Hood said.” Iran’s rulers repeatedly resisted arrangements that constrain their regional ambitions.”

Hood said the best outcome for US interests, the region and the Iranian people would be the collapse of the Iranian government. He said the Islamic Republic as being in “terminal decline,” citing Iran’s economic problems, leadership disarray and lack of legitimacy in an opinion piece published by the Hudson Institute.

The US naval blockade is forcing Iranian-flagged oil tankers to remain away from Iranian ports, with at least 20 empty vessels now anchored off Sri Lanka after completing ship-to-ship transfers of Iranian crude in Southeast Asia, United Against Nuclear Iran said on Tuesday.

The tankers have remained away from Iranian ports because of the blockade, with several moving away from the Galle anchorage on August 23, possibly because of increased regulatory or enforcement pressure following recent media coverage of the vessels, the report said.

Other Iran-flagged tankers reached the Singapore Strait, with 26 vessels tracked there and expected to carry out ship-to-ship transfers at an anchorage off Malaysia, according to the report.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf mocked the US campaign against Iran on Tuesday, ridiculing Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s description of the new sanctions drive as an “Economic D-Day” and questioning Washington’s stated concern about disrupting the global financial system.

“Him: “Economic D-Day.” Also him, five seconds later: “ why would I want to blow up the global financial system?” Sir this ain’t Normandy, this is improv night and you forgot your own script,” Ghalibaf posted on X.

The Trump administration is expected to continue its economic pressure campaign against Iran at least through the US midterm elections, with a new military campaign potentially returning to the table afterward, Axios reported on Tuesday, citing a US official.

A new reformist movement is emerging in Iran, with its members presenting themselves as supporters of free markets and praising the Pahlavi era while continuing to appear on state-approved media, human rights activist Motahare Goonei said on Tuesday, adding that the group is trying to mislead the public about its opposition to the government.

“A faction of emerging reformism says there should be a free market and pretends to be liberal. It even praises the Pahlavi era to mislead its audience. At the same time, they give interviews to the Islamic Republic’s approved media outlets and describe the current situation as ‘critical’ to once again, in their own view, mislead people into thinking they are genuinely opposed to the government and cheer them on,” Goonesi posted on X.

“The huge sums of money and expenses that were once spent on proxies are these days in these people’s bank accounts. But there is no doubt that they are reformists — and also shameless,” she added.

Turkey could lose a significant source of natural gas if the United States follows through on threats to economically isolate Iran, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

Turkey sourced about 13% of its natural gas imports from Iran last year, or 7.7 billion cubic meters, according to data from Turkey’s energy regulator, making Iran its fourth-largest supplier after Russia, Azerbaijan and the United States.

Gas flows from Iran have continued despite the war, aside from a brief interruption following an attack on the South Pars gas field, Bloomberg reported.

Bilateral trade stood at about $3.1 billion in the first half of 2026, down 3% from a year earlier, according to Turkish trade data.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday that countries continuing to do business with Iran after a specified period could face economic penalties as Washington expands its “Operation Economic Outcast” campaign.

Turkey could offset any reduction in Iranian gas with more expensive alternatives, including increased liquefied natural gas imports from the United States, Bloomberg reported.

Turkey has continued to import Iranian gas after a 25-year contract expired at the end of July, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said an understanding with Oman would allow only commercial vessels to transit the Strait of Hormuz, saying “no military vessel will be allowed to pass,” in an interview with state television Tuesday.

“Under the understanding, the inbound route to the Persian Gulf will be through Iranian waters and the outbound route through Omani territorial waters, and on both routes ships will pass through Iranian waters,” he added.

Gharibabadi said the route would be temporary and that Iran and Oman would negotiate a new permanent route within 30 to 60 days to replace the previous maritime traffic scheme.

“We had expected to close the southern route in the Strait of Hormuz with the help of our Omani friends, but US pressure prevented that and we were forced into a military confrontation,” Gharibabadi said.

He also said the understanding did not mean the strait would reopen immediately from Wednesday. Gharibabadi said the United States must fully meet commitments it had previously failed to uphold before any move to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

In a joint statement earlier Tuesday, Iran and Oman said they had discussed a phased framework that included establishing a temporary joint shipping corridor through the Strait of Hormuz and implementing a joint project to clear mines from the strait.

At least 15 ship-to-ship transfer operations were taking place in the Gulf of Oman Tuesday involving about 25 million barrels of crude oil, maritime tracking service TankerTrackers said in a post on X.

The oil originated from almost every country in the region except Iran, with additional refined products also being transferred, according to the post.