Iran says it plans to create new 'restricted zone' near Strait of Hormuz -- as it desperately tries to control chokepoint

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 that 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. 4 Mohsen Rezaei, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, speaks in an interview with state television on Sunday, September 6, 2026. Iranian State TV 4 The unladen crude oil carrier M/T Kylo, also known as the Noxen, is seen in the Gulf of Oman in a photo released on Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. CENTCOM / SWNS 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. Explore More Glamorous TV host weeps as she’s sentenced to death by hanging for involvement in drug trafficking gang ‘Vampire’ so feared she was locked in booby-trapped grave was teen girl who met horror movie fate: experts Glamorous TV host sentenced to death for running drug trafficking ring to launch desperate appeal “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. 4 Marine traffic in the Straight of Hormuz on Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. MarineTraffic “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. 4 A gull flies overhead as a boy stands with his bicycle on a beach overlooking commercial vessels anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran on Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. AP Photo/Vahid Salemi 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