The United States has asked allied countries and China to join a campaign of economic sanctions against Iran, part of President Trump's effort to raise pressure on Tehran during a stalled war.
The United Arab Emirates has stopped all financial transactions and trade with Iran after an Iranian missile reached its territorial waters, the sea area a country controls near its coast.
The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman that much of the world's oil passes through.
In the same week, Russia stepped up bombing of Ukraine's Odesa port to cut it off from the Black Sea, an unexplained incident was reported in the Strait of Hormuz (the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman that much of the world's oil passes through), and Somali pirates hijacked a cargo ship, their fifth attack since April.
Iran's parliament speaker said Tuesday that forces will keep the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow sea passage that much of the world's oil ships through, closed until the US meets terms from an earlier agreement.
President Donald Trump says he will declare the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow sea passage between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula, part of United States territory.
President Trump said the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which has spent a record nearly nine months at sea backing US operations against Iran, will keep deploying, dismissing concerns about sailors' mental health.
Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman that carries much of the world's oil, has slowed further, Reuters reports, as the United States threatens new economic penalties on Iran.
The US Defense Secretary said the Navy's blockade around the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow sea passage next to Iran through which much of the world's oil passes, can go on indefinitely.
The United States is sending a second aircraft carrier, the USS George Washington, to join the USS Abraham Lincoln near Iran, giving it two carrier groups in the region.
Iran has said it will only reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow sea passage that much of the world's oil ships through, if the United States lifts its economic sanctions on Iran.
President Trump said the United States is taking a low-key approach in its standoff with Iran, preferring economic pressure over military action.