At a moment when the world's energy arteries remain perpetually vulnerable, Iran has moved to heighten that vulnerability — announcing a proposed exclusion zone near the Strait of Hormuz, threatening the United States with economic warfare, and doing so in concert with Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia. The convergence of these pressures, whether coordinated strategy or opportunistic timing, touches one of civilization's most sensitive nerves: the uninterrupted flow of energy that sustains modern economies. Markets have already begun to answer, as they always do, before the facts are fully known.