Just one month after diplomatic peace talks failed to de-escalate long-running tensions between the United States and Iran, the region has slid into a rapidly intensifying armed conflict that is leaving a rising toll of civilian casualties and widespread destruction of critical infrastructure. The core point of contention driving the latest wave of violence is strategic control over the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important chokepoint for global oil trade, where neither superpower is willing to concede dominance to the other.