Share this article:XBlueskyFacebookGet Article LinkEditor’s Note: This article was produced in collaboration with our sister publication, GlobalPost. With renewed airstrikes this week between the U.S. and Iran, oil-rich Gulf countries are adjusting to an unsettling new reality: The Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas used to transit, may never reopen to free and unfettered maritime traffic. The U.S. and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding in June to end hostilities and reopen the strait, which Tehran effectively closed after the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes against it in late February. But the initial confidence-building measures included in the memorandum were never fully implemented by either side, and the conflict soon reignited amid mutual recriminations.