The Hormuz blockade is back on — and U.S. and Iranian strikes are widening at the same time. If you're just joining, the Hormuz crisis had already moved past threats to shipping before this latest round of fighting. CENTCOM said U.S. unmanned surface vessels struck Iranian naval infrastructure at Bandar Abbas — the first American combat use of sea drones — in a campaign aimed at cutting Iran's ability to hit commercial traffic through the strait. This is Iran War Daily. Today, Tehran tries to turn the blockade into law while six named targets go on the map and sea drones come off the leash. And somehow, Rome. From France24:
US forces struck Iran and reimposed a naval blockade on its ports as Tehran hit Washington's Gulf allies on Wednesday, vowing the Strait of Hormuz would stay closed "until the US ends its aggression".
So Trump backs off the 20 percent levy on ships one hour, and the next hour there's a full naval blockade back on Iran's ports. The toll booth idea's dead — they just closed the road instead. Let me pin down the sequence, per AFP: U.S. forces struck Iran and reimposed the blockade Wednesday. Tehran hit Washington's Gulf allies that same day. The Hormuz fight has moved from shipping levies into renewed strikes and retaliation. And there's a diplomatic casualty on the record: Deputy Foreign Minister Gharibabadi says the blockade has "in a way dismantled the Islamabad memorandum." That's Tehran itself saying the MOU is wrecked, not us reading it in. Then read the Guards' quote next to it — oil and gas from the region will be "available for everyone or for no one." That's a threat to America's economic rivals as much as to Washington. Beijing and Delhi are hearing that too. Euronews writes:
US strikes also hit the port city of Bushehr — which hosts Iran's only civilian nuclear power plant — with deputy provincial governor Ehsan Jahanian saying "four points in the city of Bushehr were hit by enemy projectiles at noon," according to state-run news agency IRNA. There was no immediate word on damage to the nuclear facility itself.
Euronews has two things on the record as of Tuesday: four points hit inside Bushehr, the port city that hosts Iran's only civilian nuclear power plant. Iran's parliament also formally submitted a bill asserting permanent control over the Strait of Hormuz. Bushehr's the one that makes me sit up. You put U.S. projectiles inside the city that houses Iran's only nuclear plant, and the margin for a very bad accident just narrowed to nothing. Just to be precise about what Euronews confirms — four points in the city, not the reactor itself. But you're right: the geography carries its own risk, no matter the aim point. And the parliament bill — that's the part I'd underline. Closing Hormuz stops being a commander's threat and becomes Iranian statute. You can't quietly walk a statute back in a back-channel. This is coming from the Majlis, through a formal submission. That's a different order of commitment than a general at a podium, and it's the clearest institutional answer to Trump's line that a deal existed two days ago. Meanwhile Iran hit two ships in the strait Tuesday — one dead, eight hurt, per Euronews — while Trump says Washington's 'taking control' of the waterway. Both sides are claiming the same water. Call it a collision course with paperwork. Here's Iran International:
US Central Command says it completed its latest five-hour wave of strikes against Iran at 10:15 p.m. ET on Monday. According to CENTCOM, the operation targeted military sites in Bushehr, Chabahar, Jask, Konarak, Abu Musa and Bandar Abbas, with precision strikes against coastal defense systems, missile and drone sites, and other maritime capabilities.
CENTCOM says the wave wrapped at 10:15 p.m. Eastern Monday — five hours, six named sites: Bushehr, Chabahar, Jask, Konarak, Abu Musa, and Bandar Abbas. Coastal defense, missile and drone sites, maritime capabilities. What stands out is the geography. Every one of those targets sits on the coast or on an island — Abu Musa's the contested one — and CENTCOM's stated aim is Iran's ability to hit commercial shipping. Not inland. Walk that map and it looks like strip-mining. Chabahar, Jask, Konarak, Bandar Abbas — the nodes that let Tehran reach into the Gulf and out to the Arabian Sea. Gut those in one window and you're left asking what's physically left to threaten a tanker with. And notice what set this off — per Iran International, the IRGC hit Oman's Duqm port Sunday, carrier refueling infrastructure. Oman summoned Iran's ambassador. Oman was the mediator everybody was counting on, and now it's condemning Tehran as 'irresponsible.' That's the piece I'd hold up. Muscat isn't a party to the shooting — it's the channel. If Oman's summoning the ambassador, the go-between just got pulled into the fight. AL-MONITOR, with Maya Gebeily and Alvise Armellini:
BEIRUT/ROME, July 14 (Reuters) - Lebanon and Israel resumed talks on Tuesday in the Italian capital, with Beirut hoping for progress towards securing an Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon under a U.S.-brokered agreement, although expectations for swift progress were low. A U.S. State Department official said in a brief statement that the Rome talks were positive and would continue on Wednesday, adding that both sides were eager to move forward.
So while the U.S. is blockading Iranian ports and hitting Bushehr, there's a delegation sitting in a hotel in Rome trying to negotiate an Israeli pullout from south Lebanon. This is the one table in the whole war that isn't on fire. Right — Lebanon and Israel resumed U.S.-brokered talks Tuesday, and a State Department official called them positive and said they'd continue Wednesday. The diplomatic track is still moving alongside the shooting, not replacing it. And the sourcing matters here. That's a U.S. State Department line, plus Beirut's hopes — the official also kept expectations for swift progress low. So: talks are happening; no promised breakthrough. Here's my problem. Lebanon's whole leverage is its patron. Hezbollah's own position, per the reporting, is that only Iranian pressure on Washington ends the war. And Iran is currently getting its coastline strip-mined. So what exactly is the Lebanese delegation bargaining with? That's the seam. Iran demanded an end to the Lebanon war as part of its interim deal with Washington last month, and the Gulf hostilities have strained that deal all week. Rome is now tied to a document the blockade is putting under real pressure. Here's what CBS News is reporting. So CENTCOM's confirming the sea drones weren't a one-off at the sub base — unmanned surface vessels hit coastal defenses across the whole wave. First time in combat, per CBS. That's the specific claim: CBS says CENTCOM identified unmanned surface vessels in the strike on the Bandar Abbas naval base. The platform matters here. It's a capability threshold, separate from the strike count itself. And it's a cheap capability. You don't need to risk a destroyer or a pilot to gut Iran's ability to threaten shipping — you float a robot boat into a naval base. That math changes how often Washington reaches for this. It also changes what Iran can retaliate against. There's no crew to capture, no downed airman. The escalation calculus on the other side gets murkier when the thing you hit is a machine. If Iran War Daily helps you stay oriented, please subscribe and leave a quick review wherever you’re listening. It really helps other people find the show and follow the story with us.
Next, we’re watching Wednesday’s continuation of the Rome talks on implementing the Lebanon-Israel framework deal.
You’ll find links to every story from today’s briefing in the show notes, if you want to dig deeper into anything we covered. That’s Iran War Daily for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.