When US forces struck near Bandar Abbas for the second time in under a week on May 28, 2026, the world was reminded of something it tends to forget between crises — this single port city quietly controls the flow of roughly one-fifth of the world's oil supply. Bandar Abbas is not just Iran's largest port. It is the physical nerve center of Tehran's military, economic, and geopolitical power in the Persian Gulf. Understanding why the US keeps targeting it is really understanding why the Strait of Hormuz is the most strategically loaded 33 kilometers of ocean on Earth.
