Shortly following a decision by the United States to end exemptions on sanctioned Iranian oil trade, Iran's parliament approved a bill labeling the U.S. Central Command and its military forces as a terrorist group. Washington had also previously added Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to its list of terrorist organizations on April 8th, 2019.
As a result of the Trump's administration's maximum pressure campaign, it is now a crime under U.S. jurisdiction for any country to purchase oil from Iran or provide the IRGC with material support. In response, Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway through which roughly one third of all oil trade passes.
