Iran to announce new Gulf restricted zone, Hormuz route: What we know

Iran will announce a new restricted zone in the Gulf in the coming days, along with maps for a new shipping corridor through the Strait of Hormuz, a senior official said Sunday.

What happened: Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said in an interview with state TV Sunday that the restricted zone would begin at the point where the US blockade of Iranian ports starts and extend into the Gulf.

Rezaei continued that any vessel entering the zone would be added to a sanctions list, providing few other details of the plan.

He also said maps for new transit routes through the Strait of Hormuz would soon be approved, following weeks of talks with Oman to agree on a framework.

“The maps of a new international corridor which lies in Iranian and Omani waters and in which Iran will have management have been agreed and should be signed in the coming days,” Rezaei noted.

Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil prices, was up 1.79% at $98.00 at 11:09 a.m. EST.

Why it matters: The Strait of Hormuz is a critical energy chokepoint through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas flowed before the war. The waterway has been almost completely closed since the US-Israel-Iran conflict began Feb. 28.

Iran closed the strait after Israel and the United States began striking the country, with Iran retaliating with attacks on Israel, neighboring Gulf states and vessels transiting the waterway. Washington imposed a naval blockade on traffic to and from Iranian ports in April, striking Iranian tankers.

An interim peace agreement reached in June failed to produce a lasting truce, with Iran and the United States resuming tit-for-tat strikes in recent days.

“We will only commit to the Strait of Hormuz being open when they [the Americans] stop the sabotage, threats and attacks on Iran,” Rezaei said.

Iran and Oman, littoral countries bordering the waterway, have been negotiating an agreement on its management for several weeks. The deal is now in its final stages and will include a temporary safe route through the chokepoint, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters in Tehran on Monday.

The move could further tighten Tehran’s control over the waterway, where commercial vessels were previously able to transit freely before the war. Iran has explored imposing fees on vessels using the strait, while Washington has called for the waterway to remain open to free navigation.

Although Tehran has said the route would include transit fees, Oman's foreign minister told a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting on June 25 that future arrangements would not include tolls.

The two countries issued a joint statement Aug. 25 announcing the framework, saying they were working toward a joint temporary navigational corridor through Hormuz, joint mine-clearing operations and later negotiations on a permanent navigational corridor.

The Trump administration has said it would not recognize an Iran-Oman agreement on the Strait of Hormuz. It has rejected Iranian control over the strait and any tolls for transiting the waterway. US President Donald Trump himself has repeatedly asserted that the United States controls the strait.

Know more: The Strait of Hormuz saw several attacks over the weekend. US Central Command said Saturday that American forces struck three Iranian oil tankers, including one off Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export hub, following attacks by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on US warships in the region.

CENTCOM identified the vessels as the IRGC crude oil carriers M/T Downy, off Kharg Island, and M/T Stark 1, near Jask, an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman just outside the Strait of Hormuz.

“A US aircraft carrier and guided-missile destroyer successfully evaded multiple unprovoked Iranian attacks. No American personnel were harmed,” CENTCOM said.

On Sunday, Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who has acted as chief negotiator in talks to end the conflict, said, "The era of proportionate responses has come to an end."

"Any aggression against Iran's interests and security will receive a faster, more intense and more painful response," Ghalibaf continued, in a speech carried by state media.

On Monday, Ghalibaf threatened US energy companies in the region.