Iran tells Hezbollah to raise readiness as Hormuz tanker attacks continue
The order comes as Iran's navy reports another tanker ablaze east of the strait and Washington weighs its next move.
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Map: The Gulf and Hormuz, marking Strait of Hormuz
Iran has instructed Hezbollah to increase its readiness and prepare for potential conflict. The move opens a second front beyond the run of tanker attacks and sinkings that has dominated the Strait of Hormuz in recent weeks.
Iran's navy reported a tanker ablaze east of the strait, the latest in a string of such incidents this week. The IRGC has said a third supertanker was struck in the strait in two days amid stalled mediation, and has said the vessel had switched off its navigation and ignored warnings. Iran's state news agency IRNA said one tanker that caught fire had violated sanctions. UK Prime Minister Burnham has said Iran's Revolutionary Guard was almost certainly behind a separate incident at Fairford.
On the diplomatic track, Iran's parliament speaker Ghalibaf has said a deal with the United States cannot prevent another attack on Iran. President Trump has said a decision on Iran will come very soon. CNN has reported, citing sources, that the US is weighing use of the GBU-57 bunker-buster bomb, a weapon built to destroy hardened nuclear sites, against Iran.
Crude oil's risk premium is already elevated on the accelerating pace of Hormuz incidents. The Hezbollah readiness order widens the geography of the standoff, pairing Lebanon-based pressure with Iran's own escalation signals rather than the independent Israeli strike Washington had reportedly sought to avoid before the midterms. It also lands alongside reports that Netanyahu discussed resuming strikes on Iran with Trump, which his office denied, leaving open whether a pledge of no action before November 3 still holds, and whether the diplomatic or military track is the one that ends up setting the timeline.