Following last night’s US strikes on Iran, Tehran says it is tightening its grip on the Strait of Hormuz.
Since the war began, the strait had been effectively closed, with transits shrinking to a fraction of prewar levels. Until now, Iran had maintained that the waterway remained open, albeit only to ships that coordinated passage with Tehran. It now appears closed to everyone.
“Due to the tensions created by the US aggression forces in the region and the announcement by the Iranian Armed Forces last night, the #Strait_of_Hormuz will be closed until further notice,” Iran’s new Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) said on X.
Data from MarineTraffic on Thursday showed very little movement through the strait since Iran declared the waterway closed.
Data from Kpler, a trade intelligence firm, showed that some non-Iranian Mideast Gulf crude flows had recovered after an initial disruption, using dark transits, shuttle tankers and Gulf of Oman export networks. This is “a workaround now being tested by the recent kinetic escalations,” Kpler noted.
Vessels from friendly countries that had already received transit permits are being asked to wait by Iran’s strait authority, impacting the few ships that did manage to pass during the war.
Hamidreza Azizi, a visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said this is “paradoxical,” as access had previously been granted to ships belonging to countries that maintain “relatively friendly – or at least manageable – relations with the Islamic Republic.”
Billy Stockwell contributed to this report.
