US Denies Navy Escorted Tanker Through Strait of Hormuz

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The US and Iran escalated attacks in the 11th day of the war as oil markets saw fresh volatility and the Trump administration said it’s keeping open additional options to curb spiking energy prices. Attention continued to be focused on an oil market Tuesday, whipsawed amid the White House’s acknowledgment that a post from US Energy Secretary Chris Wright had erroneously claimed that an oil tanker had been escorted through the Strait of Hormuz. “The President and his energy team are closely watching the markets speaking with industry leaders and the US military is drawing up additional options following the President’s directive to continue keeping the Strait of Hormuz open,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a briefing. Bloomberg's Joe Mathieu joins to discuss on BIoomberg Businessweek Daily. When the first cruise missiles began detonating inside Iran, the strikes had all the hallmarks of previous successful US military campaigns — unstoppable, overwhelming force delivered without warning. But as the conflict extends toward a third week, the US war effort is showing unexpected signs of strain against an adversary whose military budget is smaller than the GDP of Vermont — but which has an arsenal of missiles and drones unlike anything the US has ever faced. US forces have been forced to dig deep into inventories of expensive, hard-to-replace interceptors to counter the Iranian barrage. Even with the Pentagon saying Iran’s attacks are down more than 80%, hard-to-spot anti-aircraft missiles have prevented the total aerial dominance Washington is accustomed to. “The United States led the long-range precision strike revolution, and this is the first war where we’re seeing the adversary have that kind of capability,” said Kelly Grieco, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center. “It’s putting stress on the system that we haven’t seen before.” Tehran is still hitting valuable military installations and energy infrastructure across the Mideast daily, part of its strategy to raise oil prices to economically punishing levels. A strike in the United Arab Emirates near one of the world’s biggest oil refineries halted operations there Tuesday. The following day, the UK navy said three commercial ships had been struck by “projectiles” in the Strait of Hormuz and Persian Gulf. President Donald Trump has warned Iran against placing mines in the strait after reports that it had done so. Iran spent years building its missile and drone arsenals, spreading them around the country and concealing them. Some of its sophisticated ballistic missiles — perfected with designs and technology from China, Russia and North Korea — have broken through US allies’ defenses across the region. Low-cost Shahed-136 drones have forced the US and its allies to use protection systems designed primarily to combat more advanced weapons. The US Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain has been struck by several ballistic missiles and Shaheds, a rare and expensive early warning radar in Qatar was destroyed, and the radar for a $300 million THAAD battery — the most advanced ground-based mobile missile defense system in the US inventory — was hit in Jordan. “It’s a race to see will our inventories get low before the Iranian missile inventories get low,” said Mark Cancian of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.   US officials insist that’s a contest Iran can’t win, but every day that Tehran’s weapons continue to threaten populations, military bases and oil installations across the Middle East, they ratchet up the political pressure on the White House. Leaders around the world are rushing to ensure oil supplies, with the International Energy Agency proposing the largest release of oil reserves in its history. -------- Watch Bloomberg Radio LIVE on YouTube Weekdays 7am-6pm ET WATCH HERE: http://bit.ly/3vTiACF Follow us on X: https://twitter.com/BloombergRadio Subscribe to our Podcasts: Bloomberg Daybreak: http://bit.ly/3DWYoAN Bloomberg Surveillance: http://bit.ly/3OPtReI Bloomberg Intelligence: http://bit.ly/3YrBfOi Balance of Power: http://bit.ly/3OO8eLC Bloomberg Businessweek: http://bit.ly/3IPl60i Listen on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app: Apple CarPlay: https://apple.co/486mghI Android Auto: https://bit.ly/49benZy Visit our YouTube channels: Bloomberg Podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/bloombergpodcasts Bloomberg Television: https://www.youtube.com/@markets Bloomberg Originals: https://www.youtube.com/bloomberg Quicktake: https://www.youtube.com/@BloombergQuicktake