U.S. launches mission to guide ships through the Strait of Hormuz; Iran threatens attacks
The Joint Maritime Information Center said the United States has established an “enhanced security zone” south of regular shipping routes to support transit.
He said ships should consider using Oman’s territorial waters as usual routes should be considered “extremely dangerous due to the presence of mines that have not been fully investigated and mitigated.”
It was not immediately clear whether ships had begun using the route or the U.S. mission.
The Iranian navy has shared a new map of what it says is the area of the strait under its control, although it is unclear whether this represents a change.
Maritime movements inconsistent with Tehran’s “declared principles” will face serious risks, said Hossein Mohebbi, a spokesman for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. “Offending vessels will be stopped with full force,” he said, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.
Any American interference in the strait will be considered a “violation of the ceasefire” currently in force between Tehran and Washington, warned Sunday evening Ebrahim Azizi, head of the parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy.
Hundreds of ships and thousands of crew members have remained stranded in the region since Iran launched attacks and threatened its ships following the joint U.S.-Israeli assault more than two months ago.
Many of those crews lack food and other necessities, Trump said, calling his decision to release them a “humanitarian gesture” by the United States. One sailor stuck in the strait told NBC News the security situation kept him awake, spending nights on deck watching rockets fly overhead.
Two ships were attacked in the strait over the weekend, the British military’s UK Maritime Commercial Operations Center said.
