TEHRAN, IRAN — Iran says it will establish a new restricted zone in Gulf waters and publish maps for a shipping corridor through the Strait of Hormuz, potentially changing how commercial vessels navigate an energy chokepoint already disrupted by renewed U.S.-Iran hostilities.
Iran plans to establish a new restricted maritime zone extending into the Gulf and approve maps for a new shipping corridor through the Strait of Hormuz, introducing another layer of uncertainty for shipowners navigating one of the world's most important energy routes.
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said the restricted area would begin at what Tehran describes as the line of the U.S. naval blockade and extend toward the Strait of Hormuz and into Gulf waters. He said vessels entering the zone would be placed on an Iranian sanctions list.
But Iran has not yet published the zone's precise boundaries, detailed operating rules or explained exactly what sanctions against vessels would involve. Those omissions mean its immediate effect on commercial navigation cannot yet be established.
Rezaei also said maps had been agreed for a new international corridor running through Iranian and Omani waters and were expected to be signed in the coming days. He said Iran would have a management role in the proposed route.
The announcement follows renewed military exchanges involving Iranian forces and the United States around the waterway. Reuters reported that U.S. forces struck three Iranian oil tankers on Saturday after Iranian attacks targeting U.S. warships, pushing the Strait of Hormuz back to the center of the confrontation.
Iran has not yet defined where the restricted zone will run
For shipping companies, the most important unanswered question is geographical.
Rezaei described the planned zone in relation to the U.S. blockade and the Strait of Hormuz but did not provide coordinates or a navigational chart defining its boundaries. Tehran also has not publicly detailed how it intends to enforce restrictions against commercial vessels entering the area.
That makes a distinction between the announcement of a planned restricted zone and the implementation of an operational navigation regime essential.
Iran's state news agency IRNA reported Rezaei's broader assertion that Tehran considers the strait under Iranian control, while other evidence shows vessels continue to transit the waterway.
The conflicting descriptions of control are important for shipowners. Political declarations about whether the strait is "open" or "closed" do not by themselves establish whether an individual voyage can be safely completed.
Recent shipping figures illustrate that difference. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said 59 ships had passed through Hormuz over a 48-hour period ending Sunday, according to Al Jazeera. Kpler data cited by the outlet put the 10-day average for commodity vessels at about 10 per day, the lowest since May.
Those measures are not directly interchangeable — one covers ships generally over 48 hours and the other commodity vessels over 10 days — but both indicate that traffic continues while remaining severely disrupted.
The proposed corridor would alter an established Iran-Oman shipping system
The Strait of Hormuz already has an internationally recognized navigation framework.
The International Maritime Organization says the existing Traffic Separation Scheme was proposed by Iran and Oman and adopted by the IMO in 1968. It establishes designated shipping lanes intended to reduce collision risks through the narrow waterway.
The new Iranian announcement therefore does not concern a waterway without existing routing rules. The unresolved issue is how the proposed corridor would interact with the established traffic-separation system and with alternative routes used during the 2026 conflict.
In June, the Joint Maritime Information Center advised ships to avoid the international Traffic Separation Scheme because of mine risks and recommended a southern route through Omani territorial waters that had been confirmed clear at that time.
Iran subsequently described a temporary arrangement with Oman for vessels transiting Hormuz. Rezaei now says maps for a new international corridor through Iranian and Omani waters have been agreed and await approval.
Neither the final map nor detailed navigation instructions for that proposed corridor were publicly available in the sources reviewed for this article on Monday.
That makes the promised map a critical document: it should show whether the proposal modifies an existing temporary route, overlaps the IMO traffic scheme or establishes a substantially different passage.
Hormuz normally carries about one-fifth of global petroleum consumption
The consequences of any new navigation restriction extend far beyond Iran and its immediate neighbors.
U.S. Energy Information Administration data show that oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz averaged 20.9 million barrels per day in the first half of 2025, equivalent to roughly 20% of global petroleum-liquids consumption and about one-quarter of globally traded maritime oil.
The same EIA analysis found that 11.4 billion cubic feet per day of liquefied natural gas, more than 20% of global LNG trade, passed through Hormuz during that period, primarily from Qatar.
Asia has the greatest direct exposure. The EIA estimated that 89% of crude oil and condensate moving through Hormuz in the first half of 2025 went to Asian markets, with China, India, Japan and South Korea together accounting for 74%.
Alternative pipelines cannot fully replace the waterway. According to the EIA, Saudi Arabia's East-West crude pipeline and the UAE's Abu Dhabi pipeline together offered about 4.7 million barrels per day of capacity capable of bypassing Hormuz — less than one-quarter of the 20.9 million barrels per day that passed through the strait in the first half of 2025.
That comparison helps explain why changes to shipping access can quickly affect crude prices, tanker availability, freight rates and risk assessments well beyond the Gulf.
Oil prices are already reflecting renewed Hormuz risk
The latest announcement comes as markets are again pricing the possibility of deeper disruption.
Brent crude was trading around $97.50 a barrel Monday, Reuters reported, after gaining about 1.3%. The benchmark was approximately 35% higher than in February as investors assessed the conflict and threats to Middle Eastern energy supplies.
The proposed zone does not automatically mean another reduction in oil flows. Its impact will depend on its boundaries, enforcement, whether commercial operators accept the new corridor and how the United States and other governments respond.
But shipping uncertainty can affect costs before physical supply is lost. Operators must evaluate security, voyage planning, crew safety and the possibility of delay or attack, while insurers assess changing exposure around the route.
The International Maritime Organization has repeatedly emphasized those risks during the 2026 crisis. On June 11, the IMO said it had confirmed 46 attacks on international shipping in and around Hormuz since February 28 and 14 seafarer deaths by that date.
Later in June, an IMO-led evacuation effort helped move 136 vessels and an estimated 2,900 seafarers before operations were affected by renewed security concerns.
Those figures provide a measure of why a new navigation regime is not simply a diplomatic or cartographic issue for the shipping industry: route decisions can have direct consequences for civilian crews.
Iran and the United States offer competing accounts of control
Tehran's proposal is also part of a wider dispute over who can determine passage through Hormuz.
Rezaei said Iran would commit to keeping the strait open only when the United States stopped what Tehran describes as attacks, sabotage and threats.
Washington has disputed Iranian claims about its control of the waterway. The United States has also been enforcing a naval blockade aimed at Iranian trade while escorting or redirecting vessels during the conflict, according to Reuters and AP.
Those competing military positions make the legal and operational status of any unilateral restricted zone particularly consequential.
The IMO, for its part, has consistently emphasized freedom of navigation and protection of civilian seafarers. When welcoming the June U.S.-Iran agreement, Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez described restoring safe navigation and the free flow of global trade as central objectives.
There had been at least 46 verified attacks against international shipping in and around the strait by mid-June, according to the IMO.
Shipowners now need the map, rules and enforcement details
Three pieces of information will determine whether Iran's announcement becomes a major operational change for international shipping.
The first is the promised map defining the restricted zone and new corridor. Without coordinates, operators cannot determine which existing routes would fall inside the proposed restrictions.
The second is the navigation regime itself: which ships may use the corridor, whether authorization is required, how vessels would obtain it and what Iran means when it says unauthorized ships could face sanctions.
The third is enforcement. Iran has demonstrated that the conflict can make passage through Hormuz dangerous, but Tehran has not publicly explained how the proposed restricted zone would be policed or how its rules would apply to vessels escorted by foreign naval forces.
Oman's formal position will also matter because Rezaei described the new corridor as extending through both Iranian and Omani waters. The sources reviewed for this article do not provide a same-day Omani statement independently setting out the final map or confirming all of Tehran's descriptions of the arrangement.
Until those documents appear, the proposed zone should therefore be treated as an announced plan whose operational boundaries and rules remain unresolved, rather than as a fully defined shipping regime already in force.
For commercial operators, that distinction may be the most important fact in Monday's announcement.