{"id":31151,"date":"2026-09-15T18:58:44","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T18:58:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/?p=31151"},"modified":"2026-08-20T19:01:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T19:01:24","slug":"there-are-reports-that-iran-will-prevent-military-vessels-from-entering-the-strait-of-hormuz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/there-are-reports-that-iran-will-prevent-military-vessels-from-entering-the-strait-of-hormuz\/","title":{"rendered":"There are reports that Iran will prevent military vessels from entering the Strait of Hormuz."},"content":{"rendered":"

This claim has a basis in recent Iranian statements; it is not merely a rumor.<\/strong> However, there is an important distinction: Iran has not simply framed the issue as \u201cbanning all military vessels.\u201d Rather, it has spoken of not allowing military vessels to operate in or enter the Strait without coordination or authorization under the system imposed by Tehran<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

On May 31, the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters announced that Iranian forces exercised \u201cfull authority\u201d<\/strong> over the management of the Strait of Hormuz, and that all vessels were required to follow designated routes and obtain permission from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy. Most importantly, it stated that any attempt by military vessels to interfere with the management of the Strait or disrupt maritime traffic would be met with a response from the Iranian armed forces<\/strong>.<\/h4>\n

There was an even clearer incident: in May, U.S. Central Command announced that American destroyers had transited the Strait of Hormuz toward the Gulf of Oman, and said that Iranian forces launched missiles, drones, and small boats during the transit, while U.S. forces responded.<\/h4>\n

Why is this important?<\/h4>\n

If we consider this together with what we discussed earlier, there is a major difference between:<\/p>\n

Closing Hormuz:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Preventing commercial vessels and oil tankers from passing.<\/p>\n

And:<\/p>\n

Redefining Hormuz:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Allowing trade and energy shipments to continue, but subjecting military traffic to completely different rules<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The second scenario is strategically far more interesting.<\/p>\n

Iran could effectively say:<\/p>\n

Commercial and civilian vessels may transit under the new coordination and security system, while military vessels belonging to hostile states do not enjoy the same freedom.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is also consistent with the Iranian position expressed in March, when Tehran informed the United Nations that vessels it considers \u201cnon-hostile\u201d<\/strong> could transit provided they did not participate in hostilities and complied with the security rules announced by Iran, whereas this would not apply to vessels or assets belonging to the United States, Israel, or participants in the war against Iran.<\/p>\n

But there is a major legal and military problem<\/h4>\n

The Strait of Hormuz is an international maritime passage<\/strong>, and therefore any attempt by Iran to impose a permanent ban on the passage of U.S. warships or other military vessels would conflict with the American and Western interpretation of international navigation rules.<\/p>\n

The real question, therefore, is not:<\/p>\n

\u201cCan Iran declare that military vessels are prohibited?\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n

but rather:<\/p>\n

\u201cCan Iran make such a prohibition an established fact without triggering a military confrontation?\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n

This is where what is currently taking place between Iran and Oman becomes particularly important. As of August 4, 2026, Tehran and Muscat are negotiating new arrangements for maritime navigation. Iran wants to control inbound traffic and supervise outbound traffic, while Washington opposes Iran becoming the authority controlling transit routes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This leads me to believe that the \u201cNew Hormuz\u201d we discussed earlier could be based on a clear distinction between different types of traffic:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Type of Traffic<\/strong><\/th>\nLikely Treatment<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Oil and gas tankers<\/strong><\/td>\nPassage allowed, but under new arrangements<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Commercial vessels<\/strong><\/td>\nPassage permitted under a coordination system<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Friendly\/neutral states\u2019 vessels<\/strong><\/td>\nEasier passage<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Iranian military vessels<\/strong><\/td>\nSovereign Iranian movement<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
U.S.\/Israeli military vessels<\/strong><\/td>\nMost likely to face denial or confrontation<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

This would make the issue far more serious than oil alone.<\/h4>\n

If Iran were able to establish the principle of \u201ctrade yes, hostile military vessels no,\u201d<\/strong> it would be attempting to transform Hormuz from a purely international maritime passage into an international waterway operating under a special security regime in which the strongest littoral state imposes new military rules.<\/p>\n

This is precisely the core of the current struggle over the Strait of Hormuz.<\/strong><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This claim has a basis in recent Iranian statements; it is not merely a rumor. However, there is an important distinction: Iran has not simply framed the issue as \u201cbanning all military vessels.\u201d Rather, it has spoken of not allowing military vessels to operate in or enter the Strait without coordination or authorization under the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":31139,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":2,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1485],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-various-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31151"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31152,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31151\/revisions\/31152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}