The Escalating Crisis at the Strait of Hormuz

The Journal.

The Wall Street Journal

Business News, Daily News, News

4.2 • 5.8K Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2026

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz has triggered a global economic disruption and created a major military and political challenge for the Trump Administration. WSJ's Jared Malsin explores the militarization of the strait, the options for its reopening and the risks of a prolonged closure of the world’s most important energy-transport route. Jessica Mendoza hosts. Further Listening: - Will Gas Prices Go Up Because of the Iran War? - The Global Scramble for Patriot Missiles Sign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Breaking news now in the war with Iran. Iran's new supreme leader Ayatollah Mataba
0:09.8	Hamani has issued his first statement since the war. Today, Iran released a statement that it said
0:15.2	was from its new supreme leader, saying that the Strait of Hormuz must remain closed.
0:20.6	So a defiant statement there read out by a TV presenter, because as you mentioned, of course,
0:25.2	we still have not seen him.
0:26.5	He says that Iran is going to continue to.
0:28.5	The message marks 10 days since Iran threatened to attack any ship trying to cross the
0:33.3	strait, which is a critical shipping route for oil internationally.
0:36.5	This is the largest oil supply disruption in history,
0:40.3	meaning it is causing a global economic disruption
0:44.3	that will likely be felt for some time.
0:48.3	Our colleague Jared Malson is a Middle East correspondent for the Wall Street Journal.
0:52.3	The Strait of Hormuz usually handles about one-fifth of the world's oil.
0:58.6	That has contributed to a surge in oil prices worldwide,
1:02.3	which pushed past $100 a barrel this week.
1:06.5	And that's going to have all kinds of knock-on effects
1:09.6	in terms of the price of gas in the U.S. and all over the world.
1:15.0	So there are all kinds of second and third order economic effects that are going to happen as a result of this.
1:20.9	So incredibly far-reaching consequences, all focused on this one kind of body of water.
1:26.5	Exactly.
1:29.8	Why is Iran doing this?
1:31.6	Why is it so focused on the Strait of Hormuz?
	...

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