US and Iran assert control over Strait of Hormuz after latest attacks. Follow live updates.

Two men wade in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz with vessels anchored in the background, off Bandar Abbas, Iran. Razieh Poudat/AP Photo/Razieh Poudat

The US and Iran each asserted Monday they controlled the Strait of Hormuz after a weekend of attacks stretching across the wider Middle East to Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan and Oman, further threatening any diplomacy.

Iran and the US are nearly halfway through the 60-day interim deal period intended to establish talks for a permanent end to the war.

By the Associated Press

enate Republicans will return to Washington on Monday with an uncertain agenda after the sudden death of prominent Republican Lindsey Graham, a committee chairman and key player who served as a crucial ally with President Trump.

Graham, 71, died Saturday evening after a tear in his aorta, according to a statement from his office on Sunday. The shocking news came after another prominent Republican senator, former Republican leader Mitch McConnell, has been hospitalized for almost a month. McConnell broke a weekslong silence about his health Sunday evening, saying that he was still recovering after suffering from pneumonia and falling in his home.

US and Iran vie for Strait of Hormuz, waterway key to global energy supplies, in latest attacks — 12:02 a.m.

The United States and Iran each asserted Monday they controlled the Strait of Hormuz after a weekend of attacks stretching across the wider Middle East, further threatening any diplomacy to end the war.

The attacks, sparked by Iran striking a container ship in the strait off the coast of Oman, again underlined that the waterway that once saw a fifth of the world’s traded crude oil and natural gas pass through it remained the key issue in negotiations. The narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf has seen shipping disrupted since the start of the war as Iran maintained a chokehold on it by attacking commercial vessels around it, intimidating shippers.