Iran Vows 'Prohibited Zone' Near Hormuz, 'Painful' Strikes

Iran says it will declare a 'prohibited zone' near the Strait of Hormuz and promised a faster, more painful response to any further US attacks.

Iran's top security chief Mohsen Rezaei told state TV on Sunday that Tehran will announce a "prohibited zone" outside the Strait of Hormuz in the coming days, starting from the US Navy's blockade line and including areas of the Persian Gulf, with any ship entering it placed on Iran's sanctions list. The threat came as Iran's parliament speaker and chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, declared that "the era of proportionate responses has come to an end" and warned that any aggression against Iranian interests would draw a "faster, more intense and more painful response."

Iran is not backing down despite a US counter-blockade that has cut its crude exports to effectively zero. Instead, it is threatening to expand its own restrictions over a waterway that carried one-fifth of the world's oil in peacetime. Iranian officials have largely maintained their defiant tone even as Washington seeks to strangle the economy, and the Revolutionary Guards' spokesman Hossein Mohebi argued the US is inflicting far more economic damage on itself, claiming that every dollar of harm done to Iran costs America tens of dollars.

The weekend's escalation followed an exchange of fire. US Central Command said it disabled two Iranian tankers off Kharg Island and destroyed an unladen tanker in the Sea of Oman after Iran's Revolutionary Guard fired ballistic missiles at a US aircraft carrier and a guided-missile destroyer; CENTCOM said the warships evaded the attacks and its commander, Admiral Brad Cooper, warned that shooting at two US ships would cost Iran three. Iran's IRGC said it struck a US naval drone in the strait, a claim a CENTCOM spokesman called "a total lie." CENTCOM also said US forces have redirected about 92 commercial vessels under the blockade.

The economic picture is stark. According to TankerTrackers data cited by Al Jazeera, Middle East crude exports in August were down 39 percent from the January-February baseline of 18.5 million barrels per day, and Iranian exports may stay at zero for the foreseeable future. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News only about 30 million barrels of Iranian crude remain that China has not bought, while Iran has set up an "economic war headquarters" to counter what the Trump administration brands Operation Economic Outcast. A fragile ceasefire collapsed in July, and Iran has largely blocked Hormuz transit since the war began on February 28.

Tehran says the prohibited zone announcement is imminent, and US officials are holding a dual track of force and diplomacy. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Sunday that Washington is "always open for a deal" on Iran's nuclear programme, though he told ABC it "may await a next administration" and stressed the military's role in stopping Iranian crude exports. Vice President JD Vance has said the US will not reopen talks until Iran ends attacks on commercial shipping, meaning the zone and blockade regimes are set to collide rather than converge.

The Hormuz confrontation is part of a wider regional flare-up. Lebanon's health ministry reported four people killed, including an 18-year-old woman, and dozens wounded in Israeli strikes on the south, which Israel said targeted Hezbollah fighters who launched drones at its soldiers; President Joseph Aoun urged Washington to act to stop the attacks. In Yemen, fighting between Saudi-backed government forces and Iran-backed Houthi rebels over a Red Sea gateway killed more than 140 combatants between midday Saturday and early Sunday, per military sources cited by AFP, the deadliest fighting since the 2022 ceasefire collapsed in July.