iran, Us escalate hostilities in strait of Hormuz

摘要

Iran’s seizure this week of an oil tanker in the strait of Hormuz, followed by a US warship’s destruction of a “threatening” Iranian drone, are weighing on nascent eforts to ease confict in the Mideast Gulf. Military tensions in the oil shipping chokepoint fared after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard said it had seized an oil tanker on 14 July that was smuggling fuel. The US demanded the tanker’s release on 18 July, when the seizure was announced, and hours later a US warship patrolling the strait shot down an Iranian drone that was fying less than 1km away.