Iran says it plans to announce a new “exclusion zone” near the Strait of Hormuz

Iran plans to announce an exclusion zone near the Strait of Hormuz, its new Supreme National Security Council chief, Mohsen Rezaei, said Sunday. The move would directly challenge a U.S. naval blockade aimed at stopping Tehran from exporting oil.

Rezaei gave few details in comments to Iranian state television, but said the zone could be announced in the coming weeks. It would begin at the line of the U.S. naval blockade, extend toward the Strait of Hormuz and continue on the Iranian side toward the Persian Gulf. Any vessel identified as entering the zone with the intention of passing through the strait, he said, would be placed on Iran’s sanctions list.

The territorial limits of the zone remained unclear because Iran has not defined what it considers the boundary of the American blockade. U.S. forces say more than 20 warships support the blockade, which has forced 92 commercial vessels to change course and disabled three others as of Sunday.

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Any vessel that enters this zone with the intention of passing through the Strait of Hormuz and is identified will be placed on our sanctions list.

The announcement followed a day after U.S. forces attacked three Iranian oil tankers, after Tehran fired missiles at naval vessels. Experts described the episode as a dangerous escalation because Iran had previously focused its attacks on commercial shipping.

Iran also claimed Sunday that it attacked an unmanned U.S. vessel trying to enter the strait. The U.S. military dismissed that claim as a "total lie." The latest incidents came after fighting between the two countries resumed last week following a month of relative calm. The Strait of Hormuz and areas along Iran’s southern coast again became major targets.

The United States has introduced additional measures to increase economic pressure on Iran after negotiations collapsed, while intermittent fighting continues. President Donald Trump’s administration appears to be pursuing a dual approach, responding militarily to attacks near the strait while targeting foreign financial institutions that handle Iranian government money. Iran’s new hard-line leaders, including Rezaei, have signaled that they intend to continue resisting after decades of sanctions.

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total lie