Iran announced Monday it will establish a new “restricted zone” near the Strait of Hormuz within the coming days — as the flailing nation desperately tries to expand its control over the critical chokepoint.
The exclusion zone will span from where the US blockade of Iran begins to other areas of the Gulf, Mohsen Rezaei, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said on Sunday in an interview with state TV.
Rezaei said that any ship the sails into the restricted zone will be placed on a sanctions list. “Any ship that enters this area with the intention of passing through the Strait of Hormuz and is identified will be placed on our sanctions list,” Rezaei said.
Iran will also release maps of a new shipping corridor through the strait, where about one-fifth of the world’s oil passed through during peacetime.
“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,” he said.
“We will only commit to the Strait of Hormuz being open when they (the Americans) stop the sabotage, threats and attacks on Iran,” Rezaei added.
The announcement came as the Islamic Republic faces potential economic disaster –with its fuel reserves dwindling to to a paltry two-month supply, following months of punishing US bombing campaigns and a fresh wave of crippling economic sanctions.
US forces attacked three Iranian oil tankers on Saturday — including one off Kharg Island, Iran’s major oil export hub — in response to strikes on US warships in the region by Iran’s hardline Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
With Post wires
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