Iran said it will announce a new restricted zone in the Gulf in the coming days, along with maps of a new shipping corridor through the Strait of Hormuz, after a weekend exchange of strikes on shipping sent oil prices higher on Monday.
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told state TV the zone would begin where the U.S. blockade of Iran begins and extend into areas of the Gulf. Ships entering it, he said, would be added to a sanctions list. Maps of a corridor in Iranian and Omani waters that Iran would manage “have been agreed and should be signed in the coming days,” Rezaei said.
U.S. Central Command said American forces struck three Iranian oil tankers on Saturday, including one near Kharg Island, after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps attacked U.S. warships. Shipping data cited by Reuters/CNA showed an average of about 10 commodity ships a day through the strait over the past 10 days — the lowest since May — helping Brent crude extend gains above $97 a barrel.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNN that U.S. transits through the strait were averaging over 9 million barrels a day and that with bypass pipelines, flows were probably two-thirds or more of pre-conflict levels.
Sources: CNA / Reuters; Al Jazeera; The Independent
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