Iran to announce "restricted zone" outside Hormuz Strait: top security official

Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Mohsen Rezaei has said that his country would announce a restricted zone outside the Strait of Hormuz in the coming days and place any ship attempting to transit the area on Tehran's sanctions list.

In an interview with state-run IRIB TV, which was broadcast Sunday night, Rezaei said that the zone would extend from "the line where the U.S. naval blockade begins to the Strait of Hormuz region and inside the Persian Gulf on the other side (of the strait)."

Ships that enter the zone without coordination with Iran, he added, would face sanctions affecting their insurance coverage and future passage through the waterway. Rezaei framed the move as part of a broader strategic shift in Iran's approach to war and diplomacy, aiming at increasing pressure on Washington.