Trump Restarts Iran Blockade as US Plans 20% Hormuz Charge

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
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This is Bloomberg Businessweek Daily, reporting from the magazine that helps global leaders stay ahead, with insight on the people, companies, and trends shaping today's complex economy, plus global business, finance, and tech news as it happens. The Bloomberg Businessweek Daily podcast with Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec. On Bloomberg Radio.

**Tim Stenovec** (0:31)
This is just crossing the Bloomberg Terminal. This is coming from President Trump on the Hugh Hewitt show as we speak. The President's saying that the US will hit Iran, quote, hard tonight and tomorrow, President Trump says in an interview on the Hugh Hewitt show. Separately, just a few minutes ago, Politico Europe, Politico EU, reporting that the President has formally notified lawmakers this weekend, that the nation is once again at war with Iran. I'm reading this right from Politico EU, giving his administration another 60-day clock to use the military in the region without congressional approval.
Again, Politico EU, reporting that Trump has notified Congress of a new war against Iran.

**Carol Massar** (1:08)
Yeah, a new war. So we're back, you know, what part of the conversation we had last week, what do we call it? Is it a war? Is it, you know, difficult peace negotiations? Is it denuclearization? You know, there's so many different things that we keep describing the situation, but it's a war.

**Tim Stenovec** (1:23)
Does it, I was gonna say, does it matter what you call it or the implications or ramifications are the same?

**Carol Massar** (1:28)
Great question, right? Or great point. All right, so let's get to it because we are watching the Strait and we know Iran understands how much power they have. They learned that in this war, that by closing the Strait, by controlling it, they really could bring the world to their knees. And so we wanted to talk with Rockford Weitz, Rocky Weitz. He's professor of practice in maritime studies. He's over at The Fletcher School at Tufts University. He is with us once again from Medford, Massachusetts.
Rocky, it's good to have you here with us. Talk to us a little bit about what we continue to see with the Strait and your understanding or your thinking about what the Strait is going forward and Iran's control of it.

**Rockford Weitz** (2:13)
Yeah, great to be back. Well, this story never goes away, it seems, in 2026 So here we go again.
Right now, it looks like we're essentially seeing two different oil passages through the Strait of Hormuz. One is a northern route that is effectively controlled by Iran, and they kind of do that with their trading partners. And then there's a southern route that hugs the Omani coast, and that is supported by the international community, including the United States, and has some protection from the United States Navy and Air Force that have assets in the region. So we're seeing sort of a bifurcated Strait of Hormuz. That has emerged during this conflict. The shipping going through there went up kind of post MOU, but has collapsed over the weekend with all the different tit for tat between Iran and the United States. So we're in another period of uncertainty, and I think the next 60 days will be a challenging time for the shipping industry to decide how to navigate through the Strait.

**Tim Stenovec** (3:13)
Well, what is the challenging part for the shipping industry? Is it getting insurance? Is it actually saying, wait a second, we don't know if we're allowed to go through here. We don't know if our crews want to go through here. We don't know if it's actually safe. This is your lane.
What is the shipping industry prioritizing here?

**Rockford Weitz** (3:38)
So fundamentally, they're interested in the safety of their ship. So they are able to get marine insurance. It's just a lot more expensive than it was before the war, but they can get it. But that being said, they still don't want to lose a ship because even right now is a very profitable time for the shipping industry. So if a ship is damaged or lost in the Strait of Hormuz, they'll get the insurance money, but they won't be able to trade until they can get a new ship.
But also the crews are always wary to go through when there's drone attacks. And I think, and also just over the weekend, the Iranians announced that they were remining parts of the Strait, so that's another issue that the commercial shipping industry is facing. So I think that we'll kind of see how things shake out. I heard the run up to our conversation, and it sounds like there's going to be significantly more US strikes tonight and tomorrow. So that will probably have reciprocal attacks from the Iranians, and then at that point, we'll sort of see where things are and whether shipping can reestablish itself once sort of things calm down again.