Der Iran verschärft die Angriffe von Hormus und erhöht den Druck auf Trump, während die Zwischenwahlen näher rückten

Part of [article](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/10/08/iran-scales-up-hormuz-attacks-raising-pressure-trump-midterms-near/) by Susannah George, Rachel Chason, and Evan Halper:

*October 8, 2026 at 5:03 p.m. EDT*

*[…] Since the uptick in Iranian attacks, the amount of crude oil shipped through the Strait has dropped steeply, according to Kpler. At the same time, the war between Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen and Saudi-backed Yemeni forces is intensifying, with the Houthis targeting oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia.*

*After a stretch in which oil flows had returned to their prewar levels, with nearly 16 million barrels of crude moving through the waterway Friday, the amounts had fallen to half that by Monday.*

*No diesel, gasoline or other finished fuels is known to have made it through the Strait on Monday. Before the war, 3.6 million barrels of such products would flow through it on an average day.*

*Eager to ease pressure on global energy markets, U.S. forces have expanded operations in the Strait of Hormuz in recent weeks to move tankers carrying oil through the waterway in defiance of Iran. Tehran had used attacks against tankers to dissuade vessels from making the trip.*

*Under the expanded operations, U.S. warships and aircraft provide cover for vessels but do not always succeed in intercepting all attacks.*

*A separate attack on a vessel off the coast of Qatar, hundreds of miles from Hormuz, was reported on Wednesday by the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations office. Details of the incident are still emerging.*

 

*The U.N. data shows that nine vessels were hit during the same week ending Sunday. Kpler’s data recorded 10 tankers struck inside the strait in the week ending Sunday. “That is the most in any week this year, against a previous weekly high of 6,” the report said. “Every attack reported since 28 September has hit a tanker.”*

*Datasets of attacks in the strait often don’t match exactly, with the U.N. shipping agency, the International Maritime Organization, taking longer than other organizations to verify information.*

*President Donald Trump last month accused Iran of trying to influence the Nov. 3 midterms, in which he and the Republican Party face pressure over high oil prices, by ramping up attacks. The White House has not ruled out renewed strikes on Iran ahead of the vote. On X on Tuesday, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, posted a meme chart of diesel prices spiking as U.S. consumer confidence and housing affordability fall.*

*Iranian officials say the U.S. political stakes are part of their calculations.*

*“Trump seems to believe that oil prices will plunge like a missile once the war ends,” Ali Mohammadi, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps spokesman, told Iran’s state-backed English-language satellite television channel, Press TV, on Wednesday. “However, he should understand that the decision over when this war ends rests with the Iranian nation — and what may come crashing down just as quickly is his administration and his political standing.”*

 

*While Iran’s “chokehold over the choke point that is the Strait of Hormuz has undoubtedly lessened,” according to Naysan Rafati, a senior Iran analyst for the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, the increased Iranian attacks are also intended to show that Tehran remains capable of retaliating.*

*Iran is signaling “that it will not go without a response … and can still create market volatility,” Rafati said.*

*“The chance of an escalatory spiral is very much still there,” he said, noting that as Iran’s economy continues to suffer, “the entire system is under duress.”*

*“The preference is to get out of this with an agreement that brings a ceasefire,” he said. “But barring that, they are using military escalation as the other side of the coin.”*

*Fighting between Houthi rebels in Yemen — who control the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which became a key alternative to the Strait of Hormuz — and Yemen’s Saudi-backed government forces has also escalated in recent days, injecting further uncertainty into the global energy markets.*

*The Houthi militants, who are backed by Iran, have this week fired missiles at Saudi airports and claimed attacks on oil infrastructure, including refineries, which Saudi Arabia’s government has not confirmed.*