Iran War Updates: Oil back near $95 a barrel as U.S. insists Strait of Hormuz is open despite attacks on ships

Washington — The U.S. and Saudi Arabia have reached a commercial agreement for U.S. companies to run nuclear power for the Saudis on Saudi soil, a regional official familiar with the agreement told CBS News. 

The agreement is expected to be signed Wednesday at about 1:30 p.m. The commercial deal would have U.S. companies running, not giving, the Saudi government nuclear power on Saudi soil for the nation's use, for purposes like supporting AI data centers. 

The deal may allow the Saudis to enrich their own fuel for nuclear reactors. 

The corporations involved have not yet been disclosed. Although it's a private-sector deal, Congress would need to be consulted. The Wall Street Journal was first to report the nuclear deal. 

Read more here.

President Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. would "bomb and destroy" one bridge or power plant in Iran for every new Iranian attack on a ship in the Strait of Hormuz.

"From this point forward, any time the Islamic Republic of Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, whether it be by Missile, Rocket, Drone, or any other device or weapon, the United States will bomb and destroy ONE BRIDGE OR POWER PLANT, including those located next to, or in, the Capital City of Tehran," Mr. Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Iran has continued to attack vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, even as the U.S. military insists the crucial waterway is open. U.S. Central Command said Tuesday that Iran had attacked more than 30 commercial ships transiting the strait over the past three months.

A U.S. missile strike hit the Iranian island of Larak in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, according to Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency, which is close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

"At 2:48 pm, the island of Larak was targeted by an American missile," Tasnim reported, saying residents heard a loud explosion there. 

"The competent authorities are currently carrying out an investigation to determine the scale of the attack, the exact point of impact and the extent of the potential damage," it added.

The IRGC said in their statement Wednesday that on Tuesday night, "despite attempts by the crews of those vessels, no ship dared attempt passage through the unlawful southern route of the Strait [of Hormuz]," referring to a path through the waterway the U.S. has encouraged vessels to use to avoid Iranian tolls. 

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Pakistan's government on Wednesday said it was "deeply concerned" by Iran's attempts to pull Saudi Arabia into the Middle East war, and it condemned threats by Yemen's Houthi rebels against the kingdom and Red Sea shipping.

Pakistan, which cemented its security ties with Riyadh with a mutual defense pact signed only last year, said it was "deeply concerned over attempts to drag the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia into the conflict in the Middle East and reiterates its unwavering support for the security, sovereignty, territorial integrity and prosperity of the brotherly Kingdom," in a statement from the foreign ministry posted on X.

The statement added that "any hostile act against Pakistani-flagged vessels or Pakistani maritime interests will be regarded as a grave threat to Pakistan's national security and sovereign interests." 

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The Joint Maritime Information Center in Bahrain, a military partnership that the U.S. is part of, said commercial traffic in the Strait of Hormuz fell to a three-week low Tuesday amid ongoing Iranian attacks on vessels. CBS News tracked just three commercial ships – two cargo vessels and the Chinese-owned tanker Hsin Ocean – transiting the strait on Tuesday.

Between July 13 and 19, only two ships transited the strait using the U.S.-backed "southern route" that hugs the coast of Oman. Both transits were dark, meaning the vessels had turned off their AIS broadcast systems, according to a Lloyd's List analysis.

Last week, Dimitris Maniatis, CEO of the Greek maritime risk management company Marisks said ship crews were unwilling to make the trip through the strait since the breakdown in the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding. 

"There's nothing physically obstructing the navigation of any vessel willing to transit the strait, and there are vessels that trade locally and are entirely unaffected by everything that's going on; however, if we're talking about large ocean-going, internationally-owned and operated merchant vessels, nothing is going through," Maniatis told CBS News on Wednesday. 

The U.S. military's Central Command repeated an assertion made by the Trump administration many times over the last two weeks on Tuesday evening, insisting that "despite Iranian aggression, the Strait of Hormuz remains open for commercial vessel traffic." 

CENTCOM made the declaration while acknowledging more than 30 Iranian attacks on commercial vessels "that have endangered hundreds of innocent mariners and undermined freedom of navigation."  

Jordan shot down four Iranian missiles Wednesday, and two others hit uninhabited areas, according to a statement from the country's armed forces.

A Jordanian army source said that the Kingdom "detected … and engaged" the six missiles coming from Iran "as soon as they entered Jordanian airspace," in a statement carried by the country's National Center for Security & Crises Management.

The two missiles that weren't intercepted "fell in two uninhabited areas free of population, without any injuries or material damage occurring," the bulletin read.

Iran's semi-official Fars News agency said the Iranian military had targeted a storage depot at the Al-Azraq Air Base in Jordan with drones early Wednesday morning local time.

Until recently, Jordan had largely avoided Iranian attacks, despite hosting U.S. troops. But Iran has ramped up its bombardment of the kingdom in recent days, killing three U.S. soldiers at an air base over the weekend.

President Trump is set to attend a dignified transfer Wednesday for some of the U.S. service members who were killed in Iranian strikes in recent days.

The transfer is scheduled for 11 a.m. at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, according to the president's schedule.

It's not clear which service members will be part of Wednesday's dignified transfer. Three American soldiers were killed in an Iranian attack on their base in Jordan over the weekend, including one who was previously believed to be missing. One American soldier was killed during the controlled detonation of an Iranian drone in Iraq.

Oil prices jumped around 4% Wednesday, with international benchmark Brent Crude trading briefly over $95 a barrel – a $20 rise since the U.S. and Iran resumed fighting on July 7.

Shippers remain reluctant to transit the Strait of Hormuz, despite U.S. Central Command insisting again Tuesday night that it "remains open."

Iran has continued to attack vessels in the waterway, as well as U.S. allies across the Persian Gulf and elsewhere in the Middle East. 

President Trump said Tuesday that the U.S. was "not finished" attacking Iran. The 11th straight night of strikes saw the U.S. target "military logistics infrastructure," according to the Pentagon, while Iranian state media reported strikes around the country.

Mr. Trump also said he would "take care of" Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels if they carry out threats to block access to Saudi Arabia's Red Sea ports via the Bab el-Mandeb strait, something which – if fully realized – could deal the global economy another blow.

"Our view is that we'll be ... in this $80-to-$90 range, depending on the news flow," Jay Hatfield at Infrastructure Capital Management told Bloomberg about oil prices. "If we actually have a closed Red Sea, that's a threat. We haven't seen that yet. That could shoot us over $100."

The Houthis have previously tried to cut off shipping through the Red Sea, leveraging the Bab al-Mandeb as a chokepoint. The strait, at the southern end of the Red Sea, is the only route in or out of the body of water apart from the Suez Canal in the north, which offers a much longer, and thus costlier route to the energy markets of Asia via the Mediterranean.

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The Strait of Hormuz "belongs to us," an Iranian official said Wednesday, adding that those who fail to understand Iran's hold on the waterway would "end up at the bottom."

"We will not seek an alternative route to the Strait of Hormuz because this strait is the heart of Iran," Ali Zeynivand, a spokesperson for Iran's Ministry of Interior, said Wednesday in remarks carried by the official state news agency IRNA.

"The Strait of Hormuz belongs to us," he said, and anyone who fails "to properly study Iran's continuous civilization … will disappear, and only their remains may end up at the bottom of the Strait of Hormuz."

Beirut is working toward a "complete Israeli withdrawal" from areas it occupies, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on Wednesday during a visit to a village where Lebanon's army recently deployed.

"We will continue mobilizing our political and diplomatic efforts to secure a complete Israeli withdrawal from the south," he said in Zawtar al-Gharbiya, one of several "pilot zones" intended to demonstrate that the Lebanese army can remove and disarm Iran-backed Hezbollah as part of a Washington-sponsored deal with Israel.

Lebanon and Israel have been engaging in direct talks sponsored by the U.S.

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The U.S. military's Central Command said it completed an 11th consecutive night of strikes on Iran at about 8:15 p.m. ET on Tuesday, insisting that the Strait of Hormuz "remains open."

The latest round of strikes on Iranian assets lasted just over an hour. CENTCOM said in a social media post that it hit aircraft hangars, drone storage and operations centers "to further degrade Iran's ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz."

"Over the past three months, Iran has attacked more than 30 commercial vessels transiting the international waterway vital for regional and global trade," CENTCOM said. "The unwarranted attacks have endangered hundreds of innocent mariners and undermined freedom of navigation."

Despite those attacks, which continued Tuesday, however, CENTCOM concluded: "The Strait of Hormuz remains open for commercial vessel transit."

The Pentagon on Tuesday identified a third soldier who is believed to have been killed by Iranian strikes on a Jordanian air base.

Army Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad, 28, of Ozone Park, New York, had previously been listed as missing in action.

Rampersad was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 57th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 52nd Air Defense Artillery Brigade, 10th Army Air Missile Defense Command, in Ansbach, Germany, the Pentagon said.

Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, and 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, were also killed in the attack on the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base over the weekend. 

Eighteen American service members are believed to have been killed since the start of the Iran war, including four U.S. soldiers in recent days — three in an Iranian attack on Jordan and one during a controlled demolition of an Iranian drone in Iraq.

Two Democratic sources and a third source familiar with the matter told CBS News the actual cost of the Iran war is much higher than the $37.5 billion estimate offered Tuesday by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

This is in part because the current estimate does not include costs like military construction for U.S. bases that have been damaged.

Hegseth said the war has cost around $37.5 billion during questioning by Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois in a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing. He said it reflects the expected cost of certain expenses that will be incurred through the end of the fiscal year, like troop pay.