The United States and Iran are locked in a perilous confrontation over the Strait of Hormuz, with both sides issuing stark threats that have raised fears of a wider regional war and a shock to the global economy.

US President Donald Trump has warned that American forces will “hit and obliterate” Iran’s power plants if Tehran does not fully reopen the strait, a chokepoint that normally carries about a fifth of the world’s crude oil shipments. Iran is accused by Washington and its allies of imposing a de facto blockade on the waterway, using coastal missile batteries, naval units and mines to menace commercial traffic.

In a defiant response, Iran’s military command vowed that any strike on its territory would trigger attacks on “all energy, information technology and desalination infrastructure belonging to the US” and its partners across the Middle East. Such targets would likely include oil facilities, ports, data hubs and water plants in Gulf monarchies that host American bases.

The showdown at sea comes amid an escalating shadow war that has already spilled into Israel and the wider region. Tehran recently answered a strike on its Natanz nuclear complex with ballistic missiles that slammed into the southern Israeli towns of Dimona and Arad, injuring more than 100 people and gouging craters through residential streets. One missile landed about five kilometres from Israel’s secretive nuclear site near Dimona, prompting fresh warnings from the UN nuclear watchdog about the risk of a radiological disaster.

Israel says it has retaliated with new air raids on Tehran, while the US military has used bunker-busting bombs against an underground Iranian coastal facility, aiming to degrade Iran’s ability to threaten shipping in the Gulf.

The crisis has jolted energy markets, pushing Brent crude above 105 dollars a barrel and stoking anxiety over inflation and supply disruptions. Twenty-two nations, including key NATO members and Asian importers, have condemned Iran’s actions in the strait and called for freedom of navigation.

Iran has meanwhile fired missiles and drones toward Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, accusing them of enabling US operations, and attempted a long-range strike on the US-UK base at Diego Garcia, according to Western officials.

Analysts say the confrontation now combines nuclear risk, energy security and regional power politics in a single, volatile flashpoint, with miscalculation on any front potentially catastrophic.