Iran to declare restricted maritime zone outside Strait of Hormuz

Tehran: Iran has announced plans to establish a restricted maritime zone outside the Strait of Hormuz, with any vessel entering the area without coordination to be placed on Tehran’s sanctions list. The move, outlined by Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei in a state television interview, extends from the line of the US naval blockade into parts of the Persian Gulf and aims to increase pressure on Washington over compliance with a June peace memorandum.

Rezaei said the zone would be declared “in the coming days” and would cover waters from where the US blockade begins to the Strait of Hormuz region and inside the Persian Gulf on the other side of the strait. Ships attempting to transit the area without coordination with Iran would face sanctions affecting their insurance coverage and future passage through the waterway, he added. The announcement was framed as part of a broader strategic shift in Iran’s approach to war and diplomacy, intended to counter the US blockade and tighten leverage over shipping.

Rezaei dismissed US assertions that ships and oil tankers are crossing the Strait of Hormuz as a “lie”, while acknowledging that some vessels try to evade detection by switching off navigation systems and using routes near Oman. He said most of those ships “receive blows” but Iran does not intend to sink them for now due to environmental concerns. The security official also claimed that Iran had, for the first time, test-fired a domestically developed anti-destroyer missile above a US aircraft carrier 48 hours earlier, describing it as a warning that the US naval blockade is vulnerable.

Rezaei said the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed unless the United States takes practical steps to fulfil its obligations under the peace memorandum of understanding signed between Tehran and Washington in June. In the coming days, he added, a new international corridor designated by Iran and Oman for passage through the strait would be announced, emphasising that the corridor would be under Iran’s management. Following US-Israeli strikes on Iran on 28 February, Tehran restricted passage through the Strait of Hormuz, while US forces imposed a naval blockade targeting vessels travelling to or from Iranian ports and coastal areas.

(Inputs from IANS)