← WW3 RISK TRACKER / THEATER: Iran War
Iran – Israel, USA, Gulf conflict
- An unidentified attacker struck an Iranian cargo ship off Qeshm Island, killing one crew member and injuring four. © Asghar Besharati, AP · 13 Sep 2026Iranian cargo vessel struck near Qeshm Island as Oman delays Tehran-Gulf talksAL-MONITOR: The Pulse of The Middle East · 12 Sep 2026New attacks in Hormuz and Saudi test nerves as war's spread worsens oil disruptionIran International · 13 Sep 2026Deadly ship strike deepens crisis over Strait of Hormuz
- An unidentified projectile hit a commercial vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, causing a fire and forcing crew evacuation. AL-MONITOR: The Pulse of The Middle East · 12 Sep 2026New attacks in Hormuz and Saudi test nerves as war's spread worsens oil disruption
- Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed its air defence forces shot down a U.S. MQ-1 drone over the Strait of Hormuz. Al Jazeera – Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera · 14 Sep 2026Strait of Hormuz talks postponed due to Yemen events, says Iran
- Oman postponed scheduled transit talks between Iranian and Gulf Cooperation Council officials regarding the Strait of Hormuz. World news | The Guardian · 14 Sep 2026Gulf states postpone strait of Hormuz talks with Iran as Yemen conflict intensifiesAl Jazeera – Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera · 14 Sep 2026Temporary Hormuz solution deferred as Iran-Arab summit falls throughAl Jazeera – Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera · 14 Sep 2026Strait of Hormuz talks postponed due to Yemen events, says Iran
- Austrian authorities revoked the visa of Iranian nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami, preventing his attendance at the IAEA General Conference. AL-MONITOR: The Pulse of The Middle East · 14 Sep 2026Iran protests as US prevents its nuclear chief attending IAEA meeting
Hormuz Maritime Safety
Iranian forces claimed the shootdown of a U.S. MQ-1 drone over the Strait of Hormuz while unidentified strikes targeted both an Iranian cargo vessel off Qeshm Island and a commercial ship near the waterway. The United States Navy continues naval blockade operations against Iranian ports while offering limited air-assisted commercial escorts along the Omani coast. Traffic through the strait remains severely restricted, keeping global crude oil benchmarks above $107 per barrel. © Asghar Besharati, AP · 13 Sep 2026Iranian cargo vessel struck near Qeshm Island as Oman delays Tehran-Gulf talksAL-MONITOR: The Pulse of The Middle East · 12 Sep 2026New attacks in Hormuz and Saudi test nerves as war's spread worsens oil disruptionAl Jazeera – Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera · 14 Sep 2026Strait of Hormuz talks postponed due to Yemen events, says Iran
Gulf Transit Diplomacy
Oman and Iran postponed a scheduled ministerial conference in Salalah intended to establish temporary shipping corridors through the Strait of Hormuz. Objections from Saudi Arabia regarding proposed wording and a boycott by Bahrain prevented a regional consensus among Gulf Cooperation Council members. The diplomatic impasse leaves maritime transit management unresolved while Saudi Arabia maintains the shutdown of its East-West crude pipeline following drone strikes. World news | The Guardian · 14 Sep 2026Gulf states postpone strait of Hormuz talks with Iran as Yemen conflict intensifiesAl Jazeera – Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera · 14 Sep 2026Temporary Hormuz solution deferred as Iran-Arab summit falls throughAl Jazeera – Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera · 13 Sep 2026Iran-GCC summit: What’s behind the meeting, why is Bahrain not attending?
IAEA Inspection Standoff
The International Atomic Energy Agency opened its annual General Conference in Vienna while reporting that inspectors have had virtually no access to Iranian nuclear sites for over six months. Austria revoked the travel visa for Iranian nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami following U.S. opposition under U.N. snapback sanction provisions. Tehran condemned the exclusion as political interference, leaving nuclear verification gaps unaddressed. AL-MONITOR: The Pulse of The Middle East · 14 Sep 2026Iran protests as US prevents its nuclear chief attending IAEA meetingIran International · 14 Sep 2026IAEA raises alarm over Iran access as Hormuz tensions mount
Assessment
Sustained attacks on regional commercial shipping and energy conduits alongside stalled Gulf diplomatic initiatives maintain severe operational disruptions across the theater.
- 2026-09-12
Drone strike from Iraq shuts down Saudi East-West pipeline
Unmanned aerial vehicles launched from Iraq struck Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline, forcing a temporary shutdown of the crude oil conduit.
- 2026-09-10
IAEA Board of Governors reports Iran to UN Security Council for non-compliance.
The 35-nation IAEA Board of Governors passed a resolution referring Iran to the UN Security Council for non-proliferation non-compliance for the first time in 20 years. The action follows over a year of denied IAEA inspector access to Iranian nuclear installations.
- 2026-09-09
U.S. forces destroy five Iranian oil tankers following IRGC missile attacks on warships
U.S. Central Command destroyed five Iranian crude oil carriers near Kharg Island and in the Gulf of Oman after IRGC forces launched ballistic missiles at a U.S. Navy warship. Iranian forces retaliated by firing ballistic missiles at a U.S. military base in Jordan and attacking commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
4 more
- 2026-09-08
Houthi missile strikes target southern Saudi oil facilities, wounding 73
Yemeni Houthi forces launched missile strikes targeting oil facilities across southern Saudi Arabia, wounding 73 people.
- 2026-08-31
U.S. and Iranian forces resumed direct strike exchanges following a month-long lull.
U.S. forces struck Iranian launcher positions on Larak Island to prevent sea-mine operations, triggering Iranian retaliatory drone and missile strikes targeting U.S. base locations in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
- 2026-08-24
US Treasury announces secondary sanctions campaign targeting Iranian trade
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a secondary sanctions campaign targeting third-party entities conducting trade with Iran.
- 2026-08-22
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz claimed an airstrike killed Iranian security chief Ali Larijani.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz stated that an overnight airstrike killed Iranian security chief Ali Larijani. Iranian officials have not confirmed the reported loss.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Is Iran at war with Israel and the United States?
There is no declared war. Iran and Israel have exchanged direct military strikes, United States forces are engaged in the region, and the pressure extends to sanctions and to shipping through the Gulf. The index sits high because that fighting is real, not because war has been declared. Iran, Israel and the United States all appear as conflict parties in Geneva Academy's worldwide classification — the strikes register as interstate hostilities even without a declared war. The index reads 76.5/100 as of 1 January 1970 (full-scale war); above 50 it grades the fighting itself rather than the risk of it.
How dangerous is the Iran and Israel, USA, Gulf situation right now?
The index reads 76.5/100 — full-scale war. The scale is anchored on 22 historical episodes from 1914 to 2005, so the number means the same thing from one theater to the next. It is a measurement of what is reported, not a forecast.
How is the Iran and Israel, USA, Gulf risk index calculated?
By fixed formula from open-source reporting: events are extracted and graded by how well evidenced they are, scored across weighted factors, and the model never picks the number. How the index works, and what it does not measure, is explained at wwiii.report/methodology.
How often is this updated?
Every day. The report is rebuilt from that day's reporting and the index re-judged from it, and a fall is published only once the evidence confirms it.
Timeline events — hover the chart to read them
Timeline events — hover the chart to read them
Timeline events — hover the chart to read them
One 0–100 scale for the whole conflict. 0–49 is escalation before war; 50–100 is active war and how far it has gone.
50 is not a threshold the number can cross on its own. Which side a theater sits on is decided by whether verified belligerents are fighting there, so war onset always moves the score up across 50 — the number never declares a war by climbing.
It is a stage, not a probability: 42 is not a 42% chance of war. Below 50 it grades movement toward war, above 50 the war itself.
Why it moved, under the chart, names what changed in the latest move: the day’s readings — strikes, casualties, talks — and, when the conflict’s stage was re-judged, what was graded differently and the events behind it. Open it for the detail.
Re-judged from open reporting by fixed formula — the model never picks a number — and a fall publishes only once the evidence confirms it. A dot on the line is a day the stage itself moved. How it is made →
Direction — which way the week pushed. Severity — where the index sits. Connections — how much of the rest a shock here reaches. Cascade — that reach combined with how ready this theater is to go off.
The index reads the state of the conflict, not the volume of news. Each run grades the factors listed below against fixed rubrics, and the score follows by formula.
So a dramatic headline moves nothing unless it changes a grade. A theater already graded for recurring incursions absorbs one more without moving — it is priced in.
Open How this was measured for every grade, its movement since the last run, and the events behind it. Full construction →
A different measurement from the score above, from a different source. This line counts how much of the world's news reports conflict between these two states, against their own long-run normal: 100 is normal, 200 is twice the usual level.
It is computed mechanically from the GDELT Project's open event stream every 15 minutes and never touches the assessed index above — when both move together, that agreement is the signal. A day with too few events shows no reading rather than a guess. Click the chart for the full history.
Data: the GDELT Project.