Iran to announce restricted zone outside Hormuz Strait

Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Mohsen Rezaei has said that his country would announce a restricted zone outside the Strait of Hormuz in the coming days and place any ship attempting to transit the area on Tehran's sanctions list.



In an interview with state-run IRIB TV, which was broadcast Sunday night, Rezaei said that the zone would extend from "the line where the U.S. naval blockade begins to the Strait of Hormuz region and inside the Persian Gulf on the other side (of the strait)."



Ships that enter the zone without coordination with Iran, he added, would face sanctions affecting their insurance coverage and future passage through the waterway.



Rezaei framed the move as part of a broader strategic shift in Iran's approach to war and diplomacy, aiming at increasing pressure on Washington. The security official stressed that the Strait of Hormuz is completely closed, dismissing the U.S. claim that ships and oil tankers are crossing the waterway as a "lie."



While acknowledging that some vessels attempt to cross the strait via a route near Oman, often switching off their navigation systems to evade detection, Rezaei said most of those ships "receive blows." Yet he added that Iran does not intend to sink them for now due to environmental concerns.