US, Iran keep up hostile rhetoric ahead of new sanctions

While the U.S. has effectively blockaded Iranian vessels in their ports, the Strait of Hormuz remained bottled up with thousands of seafarers stranded on hundreds of vessels. Only four commodity ships sailed along the strait on Thursday, none of them large crude carriers or liquefied natural gas tankers, ship-tracking data showed.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the U.S. military helped move a seven-day average of 8 million barrels a day of oil through the strait. That's down from more than 20 million per day before the war or about one of every five barrels consumed worldwide.

U.S. attacks have severely diminished Iran's economy and devastated its navy and air force, but Tehran maintains enough missile and drone capability to impede oil tanker traffic and attack regional rivals.

Trump, meanwhile, has yet to achieve objectives he set at the start of the war such as dismantling Iran's nuclear programme - the state of which remains uncertain given that U.N. inspectors have been shut out since 2025 - and creating conditions for Iranians to overthrow their clerical rulers.