Iran to Declare 'Exclusion Zone' Near Strait of Hormuz — SkimNews
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- Mohsen Rezaei, the new head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said Tehran will announce an 'exclusion zone' extending from the U.S. naval blockade line through the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf, placing identified transiting ships on Iran's sanctions list.
- The U.S. military said over 20 warships are supporting a weekslong blockade of Iranian ports that as of Sunday had redirected 92 commercial ships and disabled three, a day after U.S. forces struck three Iranian oil tankers responding to Tehran's ballistic missile launches at U.S. warships.
- Iran claimed it struck an unmanned U.S. vessel trying to enter the strait on Sunday, a claim the U.S. military dismissed as a 'total lie,' illustrating the tit-for-tat exchanges that have resumed after a month of relative calm.
- Rezaei expressed wariness toward the mediators (Pakistan, Qatar, Oman) who brokered a mid-June U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding that fell apart within days, saying Iran is now 'pursuing diplomacy with guarantees.'
- U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNN that an average of 9 million barrels of oil per day are flowing through the strait, approximately two-thirds or more of pre-conflict levels, though he noted that depends on U.S. Navy escorts protecting tankers from Iranian attacks.
- Rezaei separately claimed Iran is selling 'one million, one and a half million' barrels of oil daily despite the blockade and sanctions, asserting Iran's oil trade is continuing 'as usual.'
Why it matters: Iran's threatened sanctions list for any vessel it identifies trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz — a waterway carrying roughly 9 million barrels of oil per day — creates legal and financial exposure for shipping and insurance markets above and beyond the U.S. naval blockade already underway. The U.S. blockade has disabled only three tankers and redirected 92 since inception, while Iran's new hard-line security leadership is signaling it intends to weaponize its geographic chokehold rather than negotiate, undercutting the failed mid-June mediation effort.
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