President Donald Trump announced the United States would assume control of the Strait of Hormuz and impose a 20% toll on eligible cargo passing through the critical waterway, declaring the U.S. would henceforth be known as 'The Guardian of the Hormuz Strait.' The announcement came amid a third consecutive day of U.S. strikes on Iran and Iranian retaliatory attacks on commercial vessels, U.S. allies, and regional infrastructure. Brent crude rose sharply on the news, climbing above $86 a barrel to a one-month high, still below the nearly $120 peak reached earlier in the conflict but well above the $72.48 level recorded before U.S.-Israeli strikes on Tehran began in late February.

U.S. Central Command confirmed it had carried out strikes targeting Iranian forces it said were responsible for attacking commercial shipping in the strait, with Trump directing the operations to hold Iranian forces accountable. Iran retaliated with missile attacks on Bahrain, which sounded its alert siren for a third consecutive day, as well as attacks on Jordan and oil tankers associated with the United Arab Emirates. Iranian cruise missiles struck the MT Al Bahiyah and MT Mombasa tankers near Oman's coast, killing at least one mariner and wounding others, prompting India, which lost a national in the attack and had three others killed in a separate U.S. strike in June, to summon an Iranian diplomat and issue a formal protest.

Separately, strikes hit the port city of Bushehr, home to Iran's only civilian nuclear power plant, with Iranian authorities blaming the United States, though CENTCOM said it had completed its latest round of strikes before the Bushehr attack occurred. Additional unclaimed airstrikes on Iran raised questions about whether other actors are also targeting the Islamic Republic. In Yemen, Iran-backed Houthi rebels launched missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia's Abha International Airport after blaming Riyadh for airstrikes on Sanaa International Airport, marking the first major Saudi-Houthi escalation following a prolonged period of relative calm.

The number of vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz has fallen sharply, with data analytics firm Kpler recording only six crossings on Sunday, the fewest in five weeks. The strait normally carries approximately one-fifth of the world's oil supply. Global financial markets reacted negatively, with South Korea's Kospi falling 8%, Japan's Nikkei 225 and China's Shanghai Composite each dropping roughly 2%, and chip stocks hit particularly hard, with SK Hynix shares falling 15% and Samsung Electronics down 10%.

The United Nations Security Council held an emergency session Monday, with U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Khaled Khiari warning that 'Yemen and the wider region cannot afford another cycle of escalation' and calling on all parties to engage in negotiations under U.N. auspices. Goldman Sachs analysts cautioned that recent attacks underscore how uncertain Gulf exports remain and that serious re-escalation could sharply intensify upside risks to oil prices in the near term. A fragile interim U.S.-Iranian truce signed last month appears increasingly strained as both sides continue exchanging strikes.