Iran said on 7 September 2026 that it will declare a restricted maritime zone outside the Strait of Hormuz and announce a new shipping corridor agreed with Oman.

The statement came a day after the United States struck three Iranian oil tankers, and as Tehran warned of a heavier reply to any further attacks. The details of the zone have not been published. Officials described a plan, not a map already in force.

What Rezaei said

Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told state television the zone would be announced in the coming days. He said it would begin at the line of the U.S. naval blockade, run toward Hormuz, and continue into parts of the Persian Gulf.

“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,” he said, according to wire reports.

Rezaei also said Iran and Oman would sign an agreement on a new corridor through the waterway, with entry and exit points under Iranian control. Al Jazeera reported the same pairing: a restricted zone, plus a route agreed with Muscat “in the coming days.”

It is not public where Iran draws the U.S. blockade line, how wide the corridor would be, or how ships would be identified. Until those answers arrive, the announcement is a warning more than a working chart.

The tanker strikes that preceded it

On Saturday, 5 September, U.S. Central Command released video it said showed strikes on three Iranian crude tankers: one off Kharg Island, one near Jask, and one in the Gulf of Oman. CENTCOM said two were “permanently disabled” and a third sank after repeated bombing.

Washington said the tankers were linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and that the strikes answered Iranian ballistic-missile launches at U.S. warships. The IRGC later aired its own footage of projectiles hitting ships in Hormuz and said it had fired at a U.S. carrier and another warship. CENTCOM said those attacks were “evaded.”

The same weekend, explosions had already been reported near Kharg, Iran’s main export terminal. See Utila’s earlier brief on the unconfirmed Kharg blasts.

Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s chief negotiator with Washington, said any new attacks would meet a “faster, heavier and more painful” response.

Why the strait still sets the price of risk

In peacetime, about a fifth of the world’s oil and gas passes Hormuz. The U.S. blockade of Iran’s southern ports has been in place since mid-July. The U.S. military has said more than 20 warships support it and that, as of 6 September, it had redirected about 92 commercial ships and disabled three.

Washington says traffic under U.S. guidance has risen toward pre-war levels on some days. Tehran says the strait is still closed and that it cannot load crude past the blockade. TankerTrackers put August Middle East crude exports 39% below the January–February baseline.

Oil was already carrying a war premium after last week’s fighting. See oil’s weekly surge and the earlier Oman tanker incident.

A June memorandum of understanding, mediated by Pakistan and Qatar, was meant to reopen the strait and ease restrictions. Both sides now say the other broke it. Rezaei said Iran would pursue “diplomacy with guarantees.”

This brief is an original Utila summary of public reporting on 7 September 2026. It is not a reprint of another publisher. It does not treat the exclusion zone as already in force.

Key Takeaways

  • Iran said it will announce a restricted zone outside the Strait of Hormuz and a new Oman shipping corridor.
  • Ships identified entering the zone to transit Hormuz would be placed on an Iranian sanctions list.
  • The U.S. said it struck three Iranian oil tankers on 5 September; CENTCOM said two were disabled and one sank.
  • The U.S. blockade of Iranian ports has redirected about 92 commercial ships, according to the U.S. military.
  • Exact coordinates, corridor width, and enforcement rules have not been published.

Sources