Amid conflicting reports about the situation in the Strait of Hormuz, European leaders gathered on Friday to coordinate a plan to guard it.
But analysts said it was not clear how quickly the oil industry in the Persian Gulf would be able to get back to normal.
Statements from President Trump and Iran aimed to raise confidence in the safety of the waterway, but shipping experts said risks remained.
Our business reporter Peter Eavis breaks down how American military ships have blocked Iranian-linked vessels from using the Strait of Hormuz as the U.S. encourages other vessels to make the passage.
The U.S. blockade of shipments through the Strait of Hormuz would last “for as long as it takes,” the defense secretary said.
If tankers do not soon begin crossing the Strait of Hormuz, airlines in Europe may not have enough jet fuel to operate all of their flights.
The diplomacy came as the U.S. Navy locked down trade to Iranian ports, and Iran responded by threatening critical shipping routes across the region.
More than a dozen U.S. Navy warships are enforcing a blockade on all vessels from all nations entering or leaving coastal areas or ports in Iran.
A new pattern of deceptive activity by some vessels around the critical waterway suggests the new American blockade is changing how some ships linked to Iran are behaving.
In a thinly veiled critique of the war in Iran, China’s leader said the world could not risk reverting “to the law of the jungle.”