Iran has long asserted that it can shut down the Strait of Hormuz. While the strait can't be "closed" in the traditional sense - like shutting a road - Iran could attempt to make the waterway too dangerous for commercial passage, effectively disrupting global shipping.

Iran has in the past threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz to traffic in retaliation for Western pressure, and shipping sources said on Wednesday that commercial ships were avoiding Iran's waters around the strait.

Israeli aerial bombardment has wiped out much of Iran’s ballistic missile capability and decapitated its military command, but Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has refused to stop fighting, even promising “irreparable damage” to the US if it intervenes in the conflict in support of its staunch ally.

White House says Trump will decide within two weeks whether to strike Iran. President Donald Trump will wait as much as two weeks to decide whether to attack Iran’s nuclear program, the White House said Thursday, dialing back rhetoric about Iran having missed its window to reach a deal.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected President Trump's demand for unconditional surrender, as Iranians jammed the highways out of Tehran.

Airstrikes continued for a sixth day Wednesday amid the most intense faceoff in the history of the Israel-Iran conflict. The confrontation that began Friday, when Israel launched an air campaign targeting Iran’s nuclear program and its military leaders,

While Moscow has talked up its partnership with Iran, the deal does not require Russia to come to Iran's military aid The distraction of global attention away from Russia's war on Ukraine. "Kyiv has been forgotten" was a headline in Moskovsky Komsomolets And if the Kremlin's offer to mediate in the conflict was accepted,

In separate comments, the head of Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service, Sergei Naryshkin, was quoted as saying that the situation between Iran and Israel was now critical. Ryabkov warned the U.S.