The truce lasted about as long as all Middle East truces last - until someone needed a new excuse. This week the US struck around 140 Iranian military targets in a third wave of attacks, mostly along the Iranian coast of the Strait of Hormuz. The reason, Washington says: Iran attacked three merchant ships passing through the strait and thereby broke the ceasefire. Tehran's answer didn't take long.

Iran hit back with a swarm of drones on American bases across the Gulf. According to the Iranian military, the targets were the Patriot system in Kuwait, an early-warning system in Qatar and fuel depots in Bahrain. Sirens, explosions, air defense running all night - a scene the world watched just a few months ago, now repeating as if no one learned a thing. The night before, the Americans had already hit some 80 more targets, among them over 60 vessels of Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

The political context is what makes the story more dangerous. Donald Trump, at the NATO summit in Ankara, declared the deal with Iran "finished" and further negotiations "a waste of time." When the man who led the talks himself says there's no point talking anymore, that's not a diplomatic outburst - it's a warning. The peace talks marketed for months as a success fell apart in a week.

And why does this concern us? Because about a fifth of the world's oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz. Every time it thunders there, the price of fuel shakes - and fuel recognizes no borders. The Balkans send no soldiers there, but we pay for every liter at the pump when the Gulf burns. We're at the end of a chain that starts with a missile over a strait thousands of kilometers away and ends with a bill paid by an ordinary driver in Skopje.

There's a tragic footnote apart from the front - the former Qatari emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani has died, but his death, according to sources, has no connection to the ongoing conflict. At a time when everything gets folded into one news item, it's worth separating what's connected from what isn't. The question that remains isn't whether there will be another wave of attacks - that's almost certain. The question is who will dare to stop it first, when both sides act as if they have nothing to lose.