US and Iran trade strikes on shipping as Tehran readies a Hormuz zone

US Central Command conducted strikes on Saturday as the confrontation with Iran deepened⁶. Centcom said the tankers it hit were linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and accused the IRGC of launching attacks on a US vessel¹. The IRGC said its naval forces had targeted three oil tankers on what it called the unauthorised route of the Strait of Hormuz, along with three further vessels¹¹.

Iran said on Sunday that its forces had attacked a US naval target in reply². The IRGC said it fired ballistic missiles at US warships in response to the strikes on Iranian oil tankers³, and said separately that it had attacked an American military unmanned vessel⁴. Accounts of the drone incident near Hormuz followed the US strikes on the three tankers⁵. Centcom rejected the Iranian version, calling the claim a total lie⁷.

What Tehran plans next

Iran’s security chief Mohsen Rezaei said Tehran will announce a restricted zone around the Strait of Hormuz⁸. The country’s top national security official said the new restricted maritime zone, lying outside the strait itself, would be declared in the coming days⁹. Descriptions of the plan differ across accounts. One report calls it a prohibited zone near the strait¹¹; another says the exclusion zone would run from the US naval blockade line, through Hormuz and into the Persian Gulf¹⁰.

The language on both sides hardened. Iran warned of a faster, heavier and more painful response to US attacks, and US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth issued threats of his own¹². Months of negotiations preceded the fighting, which began in February¹².

Why it matters to investors

The war has moved from Iranian territory to the vessels that carry crude. The US says it is striking tankers tied to the IRGC¹, and Iran says it is striking warships and unmanned vessels in return^3,4. Each side is now attacking shipping, which places commercial traffic through the strait inside the theatre rather than beside it^5,11.

A declared restricted or exclusion zone would formalise that shift. The area described by Iranian officials covers water beyond the strait as well as the strait and the Gulf behind it^9,10. The announcement has been trailed but not issued, so the boundaries, the enforcement rules and the treatment of neutral shipping are not yet known⁸. The two governments also disagree on the basic facts of the latest exchange, with Centcom rejecting Iran’s account outright⁷, and none of the reports carries independent confirmation of damage on either side^2,7.