Washington answered the Al Rekayyat strike with its first signed Iran instrument of the war, and it revoked relief rather than granting it. OFAC cancelled the 22 June oil waiver five weeks early, hours after CENTCOM hit more than 80 targets. Oil rose about 6 per cent, its sharpest jump since the war's opening weeks.
Washington's first signed Iran instrument of the war revokes relief and lands beside a strike, not a deal.
OFAC revoked the 22 June Iranian oil waiver on 7 July and replaced it with a wind-down-only licence expiring 17 July, the first instrument Washington has signed on Iran in this war.
QatarThe US Treasury revoked its Iranian oil waiver, General License X, on 7 July, replacing it with a wind-down-only licence expiring 17 July. The change bars any new Iranian crude purchases.
OFAC director Bradley T. Smith signed the shift, cutting Japan's negotiating window five weeks early while China's yuan-settled purchases stay untouched.
CENTCOM struck more than 80 Iranian targets in four hours on 7 July; Iran's two accounts of its Gulf reply differ by a factor of ten.
United States×2United KingdomCENTCOM struck more than 80 Iranian targets over four hours on 7 July, hitting air defences, command networks, coastal radar and over 60 IRGC small boats.
Iran claimed retaliatory strikes on US-linked sites in Bahrain and Kuwait and said it downed a US MQ-9 drone, though its English and Farsi damage claims sharply diverge.
Brent crude rose about 6 per cent to roughly $78.67 a barrel on 8 July, its biggest jump since the war's opening spike in March.
United Arab EmiratesBrent Crude rose about 6% to roughly $78.67 a barrel on 8 July, with WTI at $74.82, its biggest jump since the war's opening spike in March. It followed the combined CENTCOM strike and Iran's Gulf retaliation.
Saudi Arabia floated expanding a Red Sea pipeline around Hormuz. Tankers made U-turns near the strait as traders repriced Gulf risk that had eased after traffic hit pre-war levels on 2 July .
Trump called the interim Iran agreement over and a waste of time, while Tehran said US and Israeli actions had gutted it; neither side has formally withdrawn.
United StatesTrump called the US-Iran interim agreement 'over' and 'a waste of time' on 7 July. Iran's foreign ministry said US and Israeli actions had made key parts of the deal ineffective.
Parliament speaker Ghalibaf called the strikes and oil-waiver revocation major violations. Neither government has formally withdrawn from the 18 June memorandum, leaving its status unresolved ahead of expected late-July Doha talks .
JMIC held the Strait of Hormuz at a severe threat level through 7 July as the IRGC hailed transponder-on vessels and directed them into the Iranian-controlled northern corridor.
IsraelJMIC held the strait of Hormuz at SEVERE threat level through 7 July, its highest rating, in Advisory Note Update 068.
The IRGC kept hailing AIS-tracked vessels and diverting them into an Iranian-controlled northern corridor, amid live mine-risk reports and a threat level largely unchanged since the June corridor suspension .
Direction: up. The specific mechanism is General License X1's 17 July wind-down deadline, a Treasury clock that runs regardless of diplomacy and forces any buyer still holding cargo to complete delivery within ten days or lose dollar-clearing eligibility. The next test is whether Ghalibaf's parliamentary framing of the 7 July revocation and strikes as MoU violations converts into a formal Majlis withdrawal vote before that 17 July date, the same escalation path the Majlis already used on 11 April 2026 to suspend IAEA cooperation by 221-0.
