Smoke rises above a ship following an explosion in the port of Bandar Abbas in the Strait of Hormuz. Satellite image captured by Planet Labs PBC, on March 2, 2026. PHOTO: AFP / AFP / Profimedia
The commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced on Monday that the Strait of Hormuz was closed to maritime traffic and that Iran “will attack any ship that tries to cross it”, Iranian media reported, quoted by AFP and Reuters.
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“The (Hormuz) Strait is closed. If anyone tries to cross, the heroes of the Revolutionary Guard and the regular navy will burn those ships,” said Ebrahim Jabari, senior advisor to the Revolutionary Guards' supreme commander, in statements carried by state media.
The Strait of Hormuz is a crucial route for the oil exports of the countries of the Gulf region.
Jabari's announcement came after the death of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in an Israeli attack, and the decision risks blocking a fifth of the world's oil flows and causing a significant increase in the price of crude oil.
The constant flow of crude oil shipments from the Persian Gulf to Europe, the USA and Asia, through the narrow waterways of the Strait of Hormuz, has turned it into the largest oil transit point in the world, notes News.ro.
The Strait of Hormuz is between Oman and Iran. It is 21 miles (33 kilometers) wide at its narrowest point, with a navigation lane only two miles (3 kilometers) wide in each direction.
According to the data provided by the analysis firm Vortexa, last year on average more than 20 million barrels of crude oil, LNG (liquefied natural gas) and fuels passed through the straits.
OPEC countries Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait and Iraq export most of their crude through the strait, mainly to Asia.
Qatar, one of the world's largest LNG exporters, transports almost all of its liquefied natural gas through the strait.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards claimed, earlier on Monday, that they hit an oil tanker allegedly linked to the US with two drones in the Strait of Hormuz.
The operator of the oil tanker “Athe Nova”, which sails under the flag of the state of Honduras, has not yet transmitted information about the situation of the ship.
