The United States military reimposed a blockade of Iranian ports early this morning after Tehran attacked ships trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, triggering a new wave of shelling.
The conflict has escalated again in recent days, further undermining the fragile ceasefire agreements.
The US initially imposed the blockade in mid-April and then lifted it in mid-June, a day after signing an interim agreement that provided for a 60-day deadline for negotiations on issues such as Iran's nuclear program, which had stalled due to the escalating conflict over the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened today to suspend all energy exports from the Middle East due to the blockade.
"Oil and gas exports from the region will be for everyone or for no one," it said.
When US President Donald Trump announced the return of the blockade on Monday, he also said he would impose a 20 percent tax on ships passing through the strait, which he backed off a few hours before the blockade resumed.
The US carried out another wave of attacks as it re-established the blockade and hit dozens of targets, the US Central Command said.
Early this morning, Bahrain and Kuwait issued missile attack warnings due to Iran, and Jordan announced that it had shot down three Iranian missiles.
Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeed Iravani, criticized the continued US attacks and stated that Washington is "the aggressor, not the victim."
Trump said on Tuesday that he had been called by "kings and emirs" from the region and proposed an alternative solution to charging ships to pass through the strait, which the president had proposed the day before.
Last night, the US president announced new attacks on Iran, including targeting bridges and power plants.
Under the interim agreement, Iran agreed to keep passage through the strait free for 60 days, but left open the question of what would happen after that.
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