LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The U.S. hit three Iranian oil tankers this weekend in what it says was retaliation for Iran targeting two Navy ships. Iran is also announcing a new route in the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway that President Trump continues to say that the U.S. controls, with little evidence. NPR's international correspondent Hadeel Al-Shalchi joins us now from Istanbul with the latest. Good morning.
HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, BYLINE: Good morning.
FADEL: So catch us up on the latest attacks.
AL-SHALCHI: OK. So over the weekend, the U.S. military said Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched ballistic missiles towards two U.S. Navy vessels, an aircraft carrier and a guided-missile destroyer. CENTCOM says its vessels were unscathed. And in response to that, as you said, the U.S. struck three Iranian oil tankers, permanently disabling two, they said, and destroying a third. In its statement, CENTCOM called the Iranian tankers, quote, "part of a multibillion-dollar shadow network" which Iran uses to fund its Revolutionary Guard. It said one of the ships was near Kharg Island. That's the heart of Iran's oil export system. Another was in the Gulf of Oman. CENTCOM's commander said, quote, "if you shoot at two of our ships, we will impose an even higher economic cost - taking out three of yours."
FADEL: Now, at the heart of this conflict right now is the Strait of Hormuz and ships passing through the strait and who's blocking what. Iran announced a new route.
AL-SHALCHI: Yeah. So the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Mahmoud Rezaei (ph), said in an interview with state TV that Iran will impose new restrictions in the Persian Gulf. He said, Iran wants to create a new no-go zone encircling the Strait of Hormuz, and it'll sanction any ship trying to evade Iran's blockade. Rezaei said the strategy is to make it costlier for the shipping companies to try to cross the strait without Iran's permission.
Now, Iran said a few weeks ago that it was close to sealing an agreement with Oman on reopening the strait temporarily. Today, the spokesperson for the Iranian foreign ministry said the talks of the agreement have reached, quote, "a final stage" and that in the coming days, they will register the safe route with the U.N. body in charge of the safety of shipping across the world.
Now, one really important thing here is that when we are reporting on developments on the Strait of Hormuz, we rely many times on official statements released by the U.S. military, sometimes by President Trump himself, and official statements by Iranian forces and government. So we are limited when we want to independently verify what each side is targeting or the vessels getting through the strait or even who really controls what parts of the waterway.
FADEL: The blockades on the Strait of Hormuz have affected global oil prices worldwide. What's the latest on that over the Labor Day weekend?
AL-SHALCHI: The U.S. has been assisting some vessels to cross the strait using strikes, and so some oil is getting through, but definitely not as much as before the war, according to shipping tracking websites like TankerTrackers.com. Diesel reached an all time high this weekend with a national average price of $5.90 per gallon. That's about a percent more than the last time we saw the highest price, in 2022. And those refueling their vehicles in the U.S. over the weekend, they were paying over $4 a gallon, almost a dollar more than the last record Labor Day high in 2012, according to AAA.
FADEL: NPR's Hadeel Al-Shalchi in Istanbul. Thank you, Hadeel.
AL-SHALCHI: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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