Iran fires on U.S. allies in Gulf after night of American strikes it claims killed four at a wedding

Iran fired on U.S. allies in the Gulf early Wednesday following a night of American bombardment that Iranian state media says included a deadly strike on a wedding party.

The latest violence came after a monthlong lull in fighting.

The six-month war has led to a spike in oil prices, roiled the global economy and posed increasing political problems for U.S.

President Donald Trump’s Republican Party ahead of November midterm elections.

Fighting has escalated since the American military hit Iranian rocket launchers on an island in the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend, saying Iran was planning to use them to lay mines.

Iran retaliated by firing missiles at American bases in Jordan that were intercepted.

American military resources are stretched and political pressure in Washington is mounting, while Iran’s economy has been battered by sanctions and an American naval blockade.

Iran’s currency hit another record low on Wednesday, with traders in Tehran exchanging 2.20 million rials for one U.S. dollar, a 10% hike from last week’s record.

Neither side can continue indefinitely between full-scale war and a truce, said Hamidreza Azizi, senior Iran analyst at the Crisis Group, an international think tank.

“At some point, one of the sides may see a need to escalate in order to break this cycle,” he cautioned.

“So that could bring the two sides to a point that they have been trying to avoid until now, which is a full-scale war.” The struggle is focused on the Strait of Hormuz and oil prices The latest flare-up in violence came as the standoff seemed to be shifting slightly more in the U.S. favor, with the price of oil hitting around $80 a barrel last month and Iranian leaders talking about growing economic hardships, said Sascha Bruchmann, an analyst with the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Middle East office in Bahrain.

“The U.S. is trying to reinstall some kind of confidence into the global oil markets … and the Iranians had to respond to that by reinserting insecurity and doubt,” Bruchmann said.

Since the fighting resumed over the weekend, the price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, has climbed to around $95 , up more than 30% from the start of the war.

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