The price of oil is rising amid conflict between the U.S. and Iran, but should investors be thinking about higher crude costs for the longer term?

Oil prices leaped Monday on worries that war with Iran could clog the global flow of crude and make inflation even worse.

Attacks throughout the region, including on two vessels traveling through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, could restrict countries’ ability to export oil to the rest of the...