Iran war is no longer a contest over just the Strait of Hormuz

Peiman Salehi is a political analyst focusing on Iran’s foreign policy, multipolarity, and global South alignments.Early on July 12, after Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz closed until further notice and struck a Cyprus-flagged container ship, the United States launched its third round of strikes in a week, hitting some 140 targets. Most were along Iran’s southern coast overlooking the strait – including Bandar Abbas, Sirik, Jask and Qeshm – but one strike days earlier pointed to a different logic.On July 9, US cruise missiles hit the Aq Taqeh Khan bridge in Aq Qala, in the northern province of Golestan, an attack confirmed by the Revolutionary Guard’s provincial command. It was not a coastal military site but a node on the overland corridor linking Iran to Central Asia, Russia and China.During the naval blockade that followed the war’s outbreak in February, it was one of the routes through which Iranian trade kept moving when the sea lanes closed. Striking the bridge signalled that Washington is no longer only contesting Iran’s control of the strait, it is starting to target the infrastructure that lets Iran function when the strait is contested.