Oil prices fell sharply after the United States and Iran paused attacks, offering Luxembourg potential relief on fuel, inflation and financial markets. Hormuz shipping, however, remains restricted.
An Iranian military adviser has threatened a broader offensive if US attacks continue. The warning comes amid direct strikes, a reported US tanker deployment and faltering diplomacy.
Iranian media reported that US strikes hit bridges, rail and airport infrastructure, while CENTCOM said it targeted military capabilities. Retaliatory attacks are pulling Gulf states deeper into the crisis.
The United States has intensified strikes on Iran and restored a naval blockade as Tehran retaliates across the Gulf. The confrontation threatens wider war and renewed disruption to global energy supplies.
Oman, Qatar and Pakistan raced this weekend to revive US-Iran diplomacy after Donald Trump declared the ceasefire over following two nights of American strikes, with control of the Strait of Hormuz the central dispute.
Iran buried assassinated supreme leader Ali Khamenei at the Imam Reza shrine, closing a vast state funeral clouded by an unresolved succession: his proclaimed heir, Mojtaba Khamenei, remains unseen.
Ali Khamenei's six-day state funeral reached Iraq's holy cities of Najaf and Karbala on 8 July, four months after the Iranian Supreme Leader was killed in US-Israeli airstrikes. His son Mojtaba, named successor by the Assembly of Experts, remains unseen, deepening uncertainty over Iran's leadership after a war that closed the Strait of Hormuz and sent oil above $120.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard fired at least two missiles at commercial ships crossing the Strait of Hormuz overnight into 7 July, striking a Qatari LNG carrier and setting it on fire. Two vessels were badly damaged but no casualties were reported. The strikes are the first in the chokepoint since a US-Iran truce took hold in June, and pushed crude prices higher as Europe watches its energy lifeline.
The United States and Iran concluded two days of indirect, Qatari- and Pakistani-mediated talks in Doha on 2 July without resolving control of the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint for about a quarter of seaborne oil. The round focused on maritime traffic and unfreezing Iranian funds under June's Islamabad Memorandum. Oil fell to four-month lows, and the next round awaits the six-day funeral of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as his son and successor Mojtaba Khamenei consolidates power.
A senior US official says Washington and Tehran have agreed to stop attacking each other and return to talks in Doha on 30 June, a de-escalation that has steadied oil prices and drawn cautious EU welcome.
After all but closing the Strait of Hormuz since late February, Iran turned the world's busiest oil chokepoint into a tollbooth, charging tankers up to $2 million a crossing. A US-brokered memorandum has paused the fees for 60 days, but the dispute over whether a state can charge the world to cross an international strait is far from settled.
A renewed tanker strike and US retaliation have tested the June ceasefire between Washington and Tehran, leaving the six Gulf monarchies to mediate, hedge and absorb the risks to oil flows and European energy security.
European airports and energy agencies have warned that a jet-fuel shortage could disrupt peak-season flights by late summer 2026, as Strait of Hormuz disruption drains the bloc's kerosene reserves.
Iran's parliament speaker and lead negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, called the US-brokered deal that ended the 2026 Iran war 'a declaration of America's defeat.' The Pakistan-mediated Islamabad Memorandum trades an end to US and Israeli strikes and sanctions relief for Iranian curbs on uranium enrichment — but a clash over IAEA inspections, and a split between Tehran's pragmatists and hardliners, leaves the peace untested. For Europe, the payoff is already visible in falling crude prices.
US and Iranian delegations meeting at the Bürgenstock resort above Lake Lucerne agreed what mediators Qatar and Pakistan called a roadmap toward a final deal within 60 days, including a Strait of Hormuz communication line, a Lebanon de-confliction cell and the return of IAEA inspectors. The diplomacy unfolded as President Trump publicly threatened fresh strikes, leaving the core nuclear and sanctions questions unresolved and oil markets watching the Gulf.
An explosion at the Barzan gas facility in Qatar's Ras Laffan complex killed 13 workers and injured 66 during a plant restart. The energy minister called it an accident, ruled out sabotage and said LNG exports were not affected — a relief to a European market already strained by Gulf tensions.
Washington has issued a 60-day general licence authorising the sale of Iranian crude, the first such opening since 2018. The move, tied to an interim deal over the Strait of Hormuz, pushed Brent lower and could ease Europe's energy-driven inflation.
Qatar kept four LNG tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz on 22 June even as Iran-driven disruption emptied the waterway, holding the line between a contained Gulf crisis and a renewed European gas-price shock.
The first round of formal U.S.-Iran post-ceasefire talks ended at the Bürgenstock resort with a road map toward a final deal in 60 days, sending oil lower and equities higher even as the enrichment dispute remained unresolved.
As Donald Trump hails a 14-point agreement to end the war with Iran, Luxembourg's foreign minister Xavier Bettel offered a four-word caveat - 'It's a long time till Friday' - that captured Europe's wary mood. EU institutions welcomed the deal while tying sanctions relief to verified changes in Tehran's behaviour, and the bargain's hardest questions on uranium and verification remain deferred.