A «new normal» of heightened risk and uncertain regulation is impacting the Strait of Hormuz, shipping firm Hapag-Lloyd warned Sunday, as military strikes escalated and conflicting routing directives plunged the waterway into operational chaos.

The remarks from the German shipping giant also came as Tehran «simultaneously» began moving millions of barrels of crude oil from Kharg Island for the first time in days, according to maritime intelligence firm Windward AI.

«At Kharg, the T-Jetty and Western Terminal loaded simultaneously for the first time in days; the East Waiting Area holds 28 tankers, 27 dark, signaling the Iranian crude export cycle restarting,» Windward AI said in a post on X.

The outbound cargo consists of an estimated 4.12 million barrels of wet cargo, including crude oil and other liquid hydrocarbons. Of that total, about 3.91 million barrels are crude oil, analytics firm Vortexa said.

GULF SHIPPING OPERATIONS GRIND TO HALT NEAR IRAN, US QUIETLY PREPARES FOR POSSIBLE STRIKE: ‘HEIGHTENED RISK’

«We have to acknowledge that this is for some months the new normal in the Persian Gulf region,» Hapag-Lloyd AG spokesperson Hanja Maria Richter told Fox News Digital.

«The situation has been fluid for us since the beginning of the conflict,» she said before adding that constant vigilance has become essential to operating in the region.

«We have been making and still make regular risk and situation assessments with our security partners, all relevant authorities and our people on shore and, of course, on the vessels,» Richter said.

«It is a region in conflict, so we consider this with every single ship we move in the region and assess the risks for every vessel and its crew individually.»

IRAN STARTS ‘INDISCRIMINATE’ STRIKES ACROSS GULF OF OMAN, HITS SHADOW TANKER TIED TO REGIME

USS George H.W. Bush transits the Arabian Sea as U.S. forces enforce a naval blockade against Iran and support Project Freedom in the Strait of Hormuz, according to U.S. Central Command. (CENTCOM)

Richter’s remarks came as U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) launched airstrikes against Iranian targets, including Qeshm Island on June 26 after a vessel was struck in the strait.

This prompted Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to retaliate by targeting U.S. military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain. 

Adding to the strike risk is a tug-of-war over control of the transit lanes.

Lloyd’s List described the fracturing of the waterway as a «confused, two-tier system now operating in the strait, which remains split between the Iran-controlled northern route and a U.S.-protected southern ‘highway,’ with the pre-war routes rendered unusable because of the risk of mines, separating them.»

Iran is responsible for managing and fully reopening maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz under recent understandings, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday, according to Iran International.

EXPERTS URGE EXTREME CAUTION ON IRAN’S ‘CROWN JEWEL’ HEZBOLLAH — TERROR GROUP WITH US BLOOD ON ITS HANDS

Ships are anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas in southern Iran on May 4. A report on May 15 said a ship was seized off the coast of the United Arab Emirates and is being brought to Iranian waters. (Amirhossein Khorgooei/ISNA/AFP via Getty Images)

Iranian state television said that passage through the Strait of Hormuz demands coordination with the IRGC.

Hapag-Lloyd pushed back against any future attempts to weaponize or monetize passage through the critical global chokepoint.

«It would be fundamentally wrong to impose fees for passage through international waters,» Richter said.

«Fees for infrastructure such as the Suez Canal or the Panama Canal are a different matter, as they reflect major infrastructure investments. That is not the case with the Strait of Hormuz.»

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While thousands of crew members remain caught by conflicting naval directives, Hapag-Lloyd said it had successfully navigated the initial bottleneck.

«Good news is that we were able to have all Hapag-Lloyd vessels that were affected by the temporary closure of the Strait of Hormuz and had been waiting in the Persian Gulf depart safely from the Gulf,» Richter noted before adding that «the safety of our crews is our highest priority.»

El presidente de Rusia, Vladimir Putin, admitió este domingo que existe la falta de suministro de combustible en su país causada por los repetidos ataques de Ucrania contra refinerías con el objetivo de debilitar la ofensiva militar Moscú en la guerra iniciada en febrero de 2022.

«En general, para estabilizar el mercado de combustible, creo que es necesario adoptar medidas sistémicas acordes con la magnitud de los desafíos actuales», dijo Putin en la reunión que mantuvieron miembros del gobierno ruso y jefes de las principales compañías de hidrocarburos.

En cuanto a las medidas que se adoptarán, Putin indicó que se aumentará «la oferta» de combustibles para mantener así los precios.

El presidente ruso subrayó además que su gobierno creó un gabinete de crisis, que opera las 24 horas, para supervisar la situación con el combustible.

«También se han preparado propuestas adicionales para garantizar el suministro de combustible al mercado interno, en colaboración con las compañías petroleras», añadió Putin.

El mandatario reconoció que el mercado interno comenzó a consumir las reservas de combustible, aunque aseguró que los niveles están prácticamente al mismo nivel que el año pasado.

«Las refinerías más grandes están funcionando a máxima capacidad» y se está sondeando a las pequeñas y medianas empresas. «Se han reducido los períodos de mantenimiento de rutina y se aplazaron los mantenimientos programados. Para julio se estima que la producción de combustibles primarios superará la de junio», apuntó.

Y continuó: «Somos conscientes de los problemas que tienen los productores agrícolas y las granjas durante el verano. Se está haciendo todo lo posible para garantizar que las empresas agrícolas tengan el suministro de combustible previsto porque la cosecha depende de ello».

Every Russian defense facility that serves the war against Ukraine is a just target for our long-range sanctions.

Last night, FP-5 Flamingo missiles successfully struck the Titan-Barrikady facility in Volgograd. It is a major industrial complex where the enemy produces artillery… pic.twitter.com/JB5JmRjTAe

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 27, 2026

Ucrania mantuvo su intenso fuego de drones sobre Rusia en las últimas horas, que provocaron un incendio en la refinería de Slavyansk-na-Kubani, una localidad de la región rusa de Krasnodar, al este de Crimea, según el gobernador Veniamin Kondratyev. La caída de los artefactos mató a una persona en Slavyansk e hirió a otra en una aldea cercana, de acuerdo con las autoridades regionales.

La refinería, gestionada por Slavyansk ECO, tiene una capacidad de unos 100.000 barriles al día y es un proveedor clave de combustible para la Crimea ocupada por Rusia. La instalación ha sido objeto de repetidos ataques desde el inicio de la guerra, según se informa, un ataque perpetrado el 26 de enero causó daños en componentes de una unidad principal de procesamiento de crudo de las instalaciones.

Volodimir Zelensky también sostuvo que una segunda refinería rusa, en la región de Yaroslavl, a unos 700 kilómetros (435 millas) de la frontera ucraniana, fue alcanzada durante los ataques nocturnos.

La refinería Slavneft-Yanos de Yaroslavl es la quinta más grande de Rusia, con una capacidad de unos 15 millones de toneladas al año, lo que equivale a unos 300.000 barriles al día. La planta, propiedad conjunta de unidades de Rosneft Oil Co. y Gazprom PJSC, suministra combustible al centro y noroeste de Rusia y ha sido objeto de al menos cuatro ataques desde diciembre de 2025.

“Cada ataque nuestro de larga distancia reduce los recursos que dan fuerza a la máquina de guerra rusa, y supone otro paso hacia la paz”, expresó el presidente ucraniano al explicar el objetivo de las misiones realizadas en el interior de Rusia.

Y siguió: «Estoy agradecido a cada ingeniero ucraniano y guerrero que asegura nuestra capacidad de largo alcance. ¡Gloria a Ucrania!».

Zelensky denunció también que Rusia intensificó sus ataques contra Ucrania durante la última semana, utilizando cerca de 1.400 drones, casi 1.500 bombas aéreas guiadas y 19 misiles de distintos tipos, incluidos balísticos.

Tehran has deployed a new front on Western social media, including a covert influence campaign to sway Americans and undermine President Donald Trump’s push for a nuclear deal, experts warned Sunday.

Following the February U.S. strikes on Iran that decapitated much of Tehran’s leadership and the signing of an interim memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Tehran and Washington, the analysts also claim Iranian officials are relying more on digital proxies to project centralized control.

«Iran’s leadership now lives on X because it is a decapitated leadership,» counterterrorism expert Dr. Omar Mohammed told Fox News Digital.

«The regime has moved its legitimacy contest onto a platform, and once you are fighting there, you optimize for it,» Mohammed, of the George Washington Program on Extremism, added.

IRANIAN REGIME SPREADING ANTI-ISRAEL PROPAGANDA ACROSS DOZENS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS: REPORT

«There are English, screenshot-ready lines, memeable contempt and civilizational pride. It is adaptation under pressure — an influence operation forced by the fact that the men running Iran can no longer stand at a podium.»

After Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed on Feb. 28, the regime’s senior leadership was largely eliminated, and the new leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is in hiding. Mohammed said Iran’s digital messaging has since become more centralized.

«The coordination between the leadership is visible: You watch the same lines reposted verbatim by the judiciary chief, the vice president and the security council within minutes,» the expert explained.

«That is a central media shop pushing copy, not officials independently moved by the same spirit at the same moment. And the register gives it away.»

According to Mohammed, the regime’s X accounts serve as a manufactured proxy for the leadership vacuum while exploiting political divisions in the United States, a strategy that he says surfaced even more after Trump signed a new peace deal on June 17 in Versailles.

«Tehran is not aiming at the United States as a single entity,» Mohammed said.

IRAN’S UNPRECEDENTED ‘WHOLE-REGIME’ DELEGATION AT US DEAL TALKS SIGNALS ONE GOAL: EXPERT

New Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and President Donald Trump are shown side by side as opposing figures in the Middle East. (Vahid Salemi/AP; Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP)

«It reads Washington as two power centers and pitches to both — working to embarrass the deal the president owns while speaking the language of multipolarity back to the worldview it attributes to the vice president.»

In the wake of the signing and the first round of negotiations in Switzerland, for example, Trump said on Truth Social that unfrozen Iranian assets would be used to buy American agricultural products, including soybeans, wheat and corn.

The Treasury Department, he wrote, would release the Iranian assets «into escrow, controlled by the United States, and will be used for the purchase of food and medical supplies, exclusively from the United States, including corn, wheat and soybeans from our great American farmers. These are things that are desperately needed by Iran.»

The regime’s posts from its lead negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, mocked the claims as «trash talks.»

«America falsely claims our unfrozen assets will buy their agriculture. Interesting. The only crop we’re harvesting is what you planted: decades of mistrust. It’s organic, abundant, and homegrown. But apparently the U.S. only exports GMO soybeans, broken promises and trash talks,» Ghalibaf wrote on X.

«The agriculture jab is aimed straight at Trump, who personally sold the frozen-assets release to American farmers as a corn-and-soybean windfall, so mocking ‘GMO soybeans and broken promises’ is built to embarrass the deal he owns,» Mohammed claimed.

VANCE REJECTS CLAIMS TRUMP-IRAN DEAL ECHOES OBAMA-ERA LOGIC AS HAWKS RAISE ALARM

Vance tells Fox News Digital the U.S.-Iran deal tests whether Tehran will trade decades of isolation for sanctions relief and renewed Western ties. (Fox News Digital)

«Tehran gains if it can discredit the deal the president is selling,» he added.

«That is also not a 64-year-old Iranian speaker writing for himself; that is a young social media team writing in his name,» Mohammed said.

Mohammed also noted Trump’s posts are his own, with the «account and the man the same.»

«The Iranian accounts are the reverse. They come from an institution manufacturing a public presence for a leadership that can no longer appear in person,» he said.

As ordinary Iranian citizens continue to face strict internet restrictions at home, Tehran’s elite enjoy open access to foreign platforms to target Western audiences.

IRAN REGIME ESCALATES REPRESSION TOWARD ‘NORTH KOREA-STYLE MODEL OF ISOLATION AND CONTROL’

Tehran has deployed a new front on Western social media, including an influence campaign to sway Americans and undermine President Donald Trump’s push for a deal, analysts warn. (Hamed Malekpour / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images)

Alp Toker, of internet monitoring firm NetBlocks, told Fox News Digital that the regime had «learned» asymmetric information warfare.

«These regimes are learning to combine social media, AI and internet censorship as tools for asymmetric information warfare, benefiting from a global audience while sidestepping accountability to their own citizens,» he said.

«There is a two-tier system in which government officials can use the platform freely to promote their agenda while denying access to their citizens, as they do in Iran.

«It’s a double-edged sword — you get more open politics at the cost of regime propagandization.

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«Iranian authorities, among others, are getting better at gaming this system,» Toker added.

Mohammed said the parallel systems — a heavily censored internet at home and what he described as an «open megaphone» aimed at Western audiences — provide the strongest evidence the campaign is an external influence operation rather than organic domestic speech.