Iran Says It Is Hitting the Oil Route Around Hormuz
Tehran’s security chief Mohsen Rezaei says Iranian forces have been striking five or six vessels a night for weeks, targeting an American-assisted operation that transfers crude to larger tankers beyond the strait. “You are smuggling, but the strait is under Iran’s control, and we manage it,” he said. Brent rose through the session to close near $107.
This is the clearest account yet of what is happening in the water, and it explains a price move that puzzled traders this morning. Three tankers suffered major damage over the weekend after being struck by mines, according to the Revolutionary Guard. Targets overnight included two outbound tankers and one at anchorage near Sohar in Oman, where ship-to-ship transfers are said to take place. Underneath it is a dispute about a line on a chart. Washington insists a southern route hugging the Omani coast is safe and has been escorting growing numbers of ships along it; Iran rejects that route outright and demands vessels use a northern passage close to its own shore, with permission from its military. A third tanker was struck and caught fire after switching off the system that broadcasts a vessel’s position, with a warning that cooperation with the American presence “will be met with a decisive response”. About a fifth of the world’s oil and gas passed through Hormuz before the war; the strait has been largely closed since late February. One analyst, Hamidreza Azizi, asks whether Tehran is overestimating how long it can sustain the cost.