U.S. sanctions Iran’s Hormuz Strait authority, warns Oman not to allow tolls

The U.S. Treasury sanctioned Iran‘s “Persian Gulf Strait Authority,” the agency launched this month as Tehran works to exert control of transit through the Strait of Hormuz.

Treasury Scott Bessent later warned Oman — which has reportedly been in talks with Iran about charging vessels transiting the key oil-shipping route — not to allow a tolling system in the waterway.

“Oman, in particular, should know that the U.S. Treasury will aggressively target any actors involved — directly or indirectly — in facilitating tolls for the Strait and any willing partners will be penalized,” Bessent wrote in an X post Thursday morning.

The post came one day after President Donald Trump, while insisting at a Cabinet meeting that the strait must remain unobstructed, said “Oman will behave just like everybody else or we’ll have to blow ’em up.”

Meanwhile, the Pentagon on Thursday morning said Iran had launched a ballistic missile toward Kuwait and attack drones in and around the Strait of Hormuz.

The new attacks, Bessent’s stern warning, Trump’s latest remarks and the beefed-up sanctions all point to heightened tensions in the Middle East, despite recent signals from the administration — and optimism from markets — that a deal to end the three-month-old war was close at hand.

But Axios on Thursday morning reported that the U.S. and Iran have made major progress in their ongoing negotiations.

The two sides have come together on a 60-day memorandum of understanding to extend their ongoing ceasefire — which Trump had already extended indefinitely — and launch negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, Axios reported, citing two U.S. officials.

Trump has asked for a few days to mull over the agreement, Axios reported. And while U.S. officials said the deal’s term have been “mostly agreed” to as of Tuesday, Iran has yet to confirm that its senior leadership has signed off on it, Axios reported.

The sanctions announced Wednesday are part of “Operation Economic Fury,” the Trump administration’s effort to squeeze Tehran’s finances that U.S. officials say has supplanted its military campaign dubbed “Operation Epic Fury.”

“Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) is a joke, and today Treasury has sanctioned it,” Bessent said on X Thursday morning prior to his post calling out Oman. “We have warned any corporate or state entities against paying tolls or hiding them as aid payments.”

Iran and the U.S. continue to use force in the strait, further eroding their shaky ceasefire that is nominally still in effect – and straining efforts to reach a diplomatic end to the war.

Iran on Wednesday night “launched a ballistic missile toward Kuwait that was successfully intercepted by Kuwaiti forces,” U.S. Central Command said Thursday morning, calling the action an “egregious ceasefire violation.”

The attack took place “hours after Iranian forces launched five one-way attack drones that posed a clear threat in and near the Strait of Hormuz,” CENTCOM said in an X post. “All drones were successfully intercepted by U.S. forces which also prevented a sixth drone launch from an Iranian ground control site in Bandar Abbas.”

The latest military and economic actions followed Trump’s insistence that he feels no pressure to make a deal with Iran before the midterm elections more than five months away.

“They’re getting clobbered. Their economy is in free fall,” Trump said of Iran during a Cabinet meeting Wednesday.

“They thought they were going to outwait me, you know. ‘We’ll outwait him, he’s got the midterms.’ I don’t care about the midterms,” Trump said.

This is developing news. Please check back for updates.