Iran unveils new map of Strait of Hormuz to show its ‘control’ over expanded stretch of waterway

Iran has unveiled a new map of the Strait of Hormuz which it says shows the area of the vital waterway under its control. 

Iran has placed the strait under a stringent blockade since late February, following the US and Israel’s attacks on the nation. 

That blockade on the waterway, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil used to flow, has resulted in a massive spike in the price of oil, gas and energy across the globe. 

Despite repeated efforts to get Tehran to relent, the regime has not loosened its iron grip on the Strait of Hormuz. 

Today, the Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) – an Iranian body set up earlier this month to control marine traffic in and out of Hormuz, announced Iran was placing the region under the ‘oversight’ of its armed forces. 

The 8,800 sq. mi. area extends into the territorial waters of Oman and the UAE, the latter of which denounced Iran’s claims of control as ‘nothing but fragments of dreams.’

Iran’s claimed lines of influence run from Kuh-e Mubarak to just south of Fujairah, in the UAE, on its eastern line, while the western line runs from the western tip of Iran’s Qeshm island to Umm Al Quwain – again, in the UAE. 

The PGSA claimed that any ‘transit through this area for the purpose of passing through the Hormuz strait requires coordination with, and authorisation from the PGSA.’

US secretary of state Marco Rubio denounced Tehran’s push, accusing it of trying to establish a ‘tolling system’ in the Strait of Hormuz and saying Iran was trying to persuade Oman to join the initiative.

‘There is not a country in the world that should accept that,’ he said, calling the idea ‘not acceptable.’

‘If that were to happen in the Straits of Hormuz, it will happen in five other places around the world,’ Rubio added.

And despite Iran’s latest announcement, he claimed that there had been ‘some slight progress’ regarding the situation involving Iran and the Strait of Hormuz.

‘There’s been some slight progress, I don’t want to exaggerate it, but there’s been a little bit of movement, and that’s good,’ Rubio said. 

Rubio said the ‘fundamentals remain the same,’ adding: ‘Iran can never have nuclear weapons, it just cannot make them.’

But a senior official from the UAE said the US and Iran have just a ’50-50′ chance of reaching an agreement that would free up the Strait of Hormuz. 

Presidential adviser Anwar Gargash urged Tehran not to overplay its hand in the stop-start negotiations during the Middle East war’s fragile ceasefire.

Iranian officials ‘have missed a lot of chances over the years because there’s a tendency to overestimate their cards’, Gargash told the GLOBSEC Forum in Prague.

‘I hope they don’t do that this time.’

The oil-rich UAE, which hosts US military facilities, was targeted by about 3,300 drones and missiles during 40 days of war from February 28 onwards, Gargash said, with only around four percent getting through.

He said the Iran-blockaded Hormuz, which normally carries a fifth of global oil production, must go back to normal, and cautioned against an inconclusive ceasefire.

‘Negotiations just to reach a ceasefire and sow the seeds for further conflict in the future is not what we’re seeking,’ he said.

‘And I think that the Strait of Hormuz clearly has to go back to the status quo and this should be an international waterway.’

With US negotiators focusing on Iran’s potential development of an atomic weapon, Gargash said: ‘The Iranian nuclear program was our second or third worry, now it’s our first worry.’

‘We see that Iran is capable of using any weapon that it has in its hands, which is what we learned,’ he added.