Report: Iran Changed Hormuz Attacks to Keep Oil High Before the Midterms
Two senior Iranian officials told Reuters that Tehran had changed its attacks on shipping to keep oil prices high before the US midterms. The account is unconfirmed, but earlier disruption shows how the strait's troubles reach distant energy markets.
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Oct 14, 06:00 UTC ·
822 words
Follows Report: Trump Told Netanyahu to "Go Ahead and Get Ready" on Iran.
President Donald Trump threatened to hit Iran "hard" as Iranian officials described new tactics against shipping in the Strait of Hormuz aimed, they said, at keeping oil prices high. [1]
Trump issued the warning on October 13 at a campaign rally for Republican Senator Dan Sullivan in Wasilla, Alaska. An October 14 report in The Jerusalem Post, identifying Reuters among its reporting sources, described the account given by two senior Iranian officials of a change in attacks on vessels. [1]
The confrontation links a war that began with US and Israeli strikes on February 28 to the November US midterm elections. Iran has restricted passage through Hormuz to gain leverage over Washington, according to the report. Before the war, about one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas trade passed through the narrow channel. [1]
"Wait and see what we do to Iran. We're going to hit them hard. Wait and see what we do to Iran, because we've had enough," Trump said at the rally. [1]
The Iranian officials said their strategy was intended to frustrate efforts by the United States and its allies to bring down global oil prices and to influence the elections. They described a decision taken at the highest levels of Iran's leadership and coordinated across its ruling system. [1]
The officials withheld operational details.
A threat after shifting signals
Trump's warning followed different public signals about whether another US attack might come before Americans vote. According to the October 14 report, he said on October 8 that the United States would not attack Iran before the midterms. At a rally the following day, he warned that he could "finish it off" if Iran did not reach a deal. [1]
His October 13 remarks added another direct threat, without setting a date or identifying targets in the quoted warning. The sequence leaves the timing of any further US action unsettled. [1]
The Iranian officials' account described a separate escalation already under way. One said Iran began using different offensive tactics about 10 days before the report against vessels it considered to have violated its restrictions. That official said the change had led to more attacks on those ships. [1]
Their description amounts to an assertion that Tehran is adjusting its military pressure to influence the US elections. [1]
The practical objective they set out was to frustrate US and allied efforts to bring oil prices down and to influence the elections. [1] Whether that pressure changes votes is a separate question from whether it disrupts ships. The officials supplied a statement of intent, not evidence of an electoral result.
The channel's reach
Threats and attacks have sharply reduced traffic through Hormuz and pushed up oil prices, although some oil has continued to pass through, according to the October report. That makes the channel an instrument of pressure far beyond the vessels directly targeted. [1]
The strongest quantified evidence in the dossier concerns an earlier stage of the disruption and a different fuel: liquefied natural gas, or LNG, which is cooled into liquid form for transport by ship.
In an April 28 analysis, the US Energy Information Administration said the strait's closure had affected more than 10 billion cubic feet a day of global LNG supplies, about 20 percent. Most of that supply came from Qatar's Ras Laffan export facility. [2]
A restriction at one passage can therefore become a problem for buyers far from the fighting, even when their own ports and energy facilities are untouched.
Citing vessel data from Kpler, a firm that tracks ship movements, the EIA said no LNG vessels loaded with cargo were known to have crossed Hormuz between March 1 and April 24. That finding covers loaded LNG carriers during a specific period, rather than all shipping through the strait. [2]
Oil and LNG should not be treated as one market. The October account describes an Iranian aim to sustain oil prices. The EIA's earlier findings show how restrictions on the same route interrupted gas deliveries and affected gas prices. They document the channel's reach, rather than establish the results of October's reported tactics.
Prices do not move together
The EIA found that European and Asian LNG benchmark prices were higher after the February 28 closure. Over the same period, Henry Hub prices, the main US natural gas price benchmark, had fallen. [2]
Those figures show why a global energy disruption does not produce an identical bill everywhere. The location of supply and the market in which fuel is bought matter. A serious interruption to seaborne deliveries can raise prices in exposed markets while another benchmark moves in the opposite direction.
For now, the confrontation has two immediate political clocks. Trump is campaigning ahead of November while threatening further military force. The Iranian officials say Tehran is using shipping pressure to keep energy costs elevated before that same vote. [1]
The next test is whether Trump's threat becomes military action and whether Iran's reported change in attacks can be verified against vessel movements and incidents at sea.
The story so far 2 pieces since October 13, 2026, in order
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