Iran Defies US Naval Blockade, Set To Launch Massive Hormuz Maritime Exclusion Zone

The head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council said Sunday that Tehran plans to announce a new "exclusion zone" outside the Strait of Hormuz targeting vessels attempting to transit the strategic waterway, marking the latest escalation in an increasingly volatile standoff between Iran and the United States. Mohsen Rezaei made the announcement in comments to Iran's state broadcaster, though he offered few specific details about the zone's boundaries or timeline. Rezaei's remarks came a day after the United States struck three Iranian oil tankers in response to Tehran launching ballistic missiles at U.S. warships, an escalation that experts described as particularly dangerous given that Iran's previous attacks at sea had largely targeted commercial shipping rather than military vessels.

According to Rezaei, the new exclusion zone is expected to be announced in the coming days and weeks and would "begin from the line of the U.S. naval blockade, extend toward the Strait of Hormuz, and from this side continue into the Persian Gulf." He warned that any vessel entering the area with the apparent intention of passing through the strait would be placed on Iran's sanctions list. It remains unclear exactly where Iran considers the U.S. naval blockade line to be located. The U.S. military has said more than 20 warships are currently supporting its blockade of Iranian ports, an operation aimed at preventing Tehran from exporting oil.

As of Sunday, the blockade had redirected 92 commercial vessels and disabled three others, according to U.S. officials. The Trump administration has pursued what analysts describe as a dual-track approach to the conflict, combining military responses to attacks in the strait with financial pressure campaigns targeting foreign institutions that handle Iranian money. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Sunday that roughly nine million barrels of oil a day are still passing through the strait on average, a figure he suggested should help ease pressure on global energy prices.

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The exchange follows a resumption of hostilities last week after a month of relative calm, with fighting again concentrated around the Strait of Hormuz and areas along Iran's southern coast. At least five people were killed earlier in the week during a U.S. bombardment in the same area where a school was struck during the opening days of the conflict, which began on February 28 following U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. Iran also claimed Sunday that it had struck an unmanned U.S. vessel attempting to enter the strait, an assertion the U.S. military dismissed as a "total lie." Rezaei, addressing the collapse of negotiations with Washington, expressed frustration not only with the United States but with the countries that had served as mediators in prior talks.

"We had trusted our friends in Pakistan, Qatar or Oman, thinking that since they had stepped in as mediators, one of a mediator's responsibilities is that if one side violates the agreement, they should stop them," he said, adding that Iran was "now pursuing diplomacy with guarantees." He also disputed U.S. claims about the volume of traffic still moving through the strait, asserting that only a handful of ships pass through daily, most of them carrying essential goods for Iran. The Strait of Hormuz, a critical corridor for global oil and natural gas shipments long treated as international waters, has become one of Tehran's few sources of leverage in its escalating conflict with Washington, with Iran's newly hardline security leadership signaling little appetite for de-escalation despite decades of sanctions pressure.

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