Oil prices are up swinging wildly as the widening Iran war disrupted tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, highlighting how important the passageway is to the world's oil supply.

Follow live NBC News coverage and latest updates on the Iran war, as Tehran attacks ships around the Strait of Hormuz, the price of oil spikes and Israel strikes Lebanon.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei issued his first statement on the war on Thursday, saying Iran should close the Strait of Hormuz and keep attacking its Gulf Arab neighbors as

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Attacks on commercial ships in the Persian Gulf continued on Wednesday, as global energy concerns mounted and the Strait of Hormuz, a key passageway for oil shipping, remained effectively closed. The attacks came as the ...

The Strait of Hormuz is the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which about a fifth of the world's oil passes. Tankers traveling through the strait, which is bordered in the north by Iran, carry oil and gas from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar, Bahrain, the UAE and Iran. Most of that oil goes to Asia.

The ongoing American-Israeli war on Iran, for all its complexity and global effects, boils down to a single question: Who can take the pain the longest? A