Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has warned that the country's navy is prepared to inflict "new bitter defeats" on the United States and Israel, according to a message broadcast on Iranian state television. The warning came amid rising tensions in the Strait of Hormuz (the narrow waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman through which roughly a fifth of global oil trade passes), where at least two merchant vessels reported coming under gunfire. The escalation signals a sharper confrontation between Tehran and Western-aligned powers at one of the world's most strategically critical shipping lanes.