Six months into a conflict with no ceasefire in sight, the Persian Gulf has become a theater where energy and sovereignty are inseparable. Iran's Parliament Speaker has answered American strikes on its tankers with an explicit warning that Gulf oil and gas infrastructure — including American facilities — is exposed and within reach. The Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's energy once flowed freely, now carries a fraction of its former traffic, and the world watches as two powers contest not merely military advantage but the very terms of global commerce.