Kazem Gharibabadi said on July 2 that the Israel-Iran war is now intersecting with the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran says oil tankers and commercial vessels must use an Iranian-designated route. Iran’s top operational military headquarters warned that it will answer any vessel using another route, making the shipping lane a direct pressure point for crews and cargo planners.
Iranian route in the Strait of Hormuz
The Khatam ol Anbia Central Headquarters said it would deliver a “decisive and swift” response to any US interference in Iranian efforts to manage the Strait of Hormuz. The same headquarters said all oil tankers and commercial vessels must use the Iranian-designated route for safe passage and that the armed forces will respond to any vessel that uses an alternative route.
Gharibabadi, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister for Legal and International Affairs, said the strait is under Iranian control, not that of US Central Command. That statement puts the warning in explicit political terms: Iran is asserting authority over a waterway that carries commercial traffic through one of the world’s narrowest shipping corridors.
June 23 route announcement
The warning follows a June 23 announcement by the International Maritime Organization and Oman of a new route to move hundreds of stranded vessels through the strait along the Omani coast. Iran recently attacked commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz after that announcement, according to the source, which links the routing dispute to direct pressure on maritime movement outside Iranian control.
Iran has repeatedly attacked vessels in the Strait of Hormuz to coerce them to use the illegal Iranian traffic separation scheme and to implicitly recognize Iranian control over the waterway. For ship operators, the immediate issue is practical: any vessel that does not follow Iran’s route now faces an explicit threat of retaliation, while the alternative corridor announced on June 23 has already become part of the dispute.
Bahrain meeting and border attacks
CENTCOM hosted a regional security meeting in Bahrain with military commanders from Gulf and other regional states, creating a direct counterpoint to Iran’s claim of control. The meeting came amid Gulf opposition to Iranian control over the strait, while Iranian forces also conducted missile and drone attacks targeting Kurdish militias around Erbil and Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan on July 2.
On the same day, the IRGC Ground Forces Hamzeh Seyyed ol Shohada Operational Base said it ambushed a Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan-affiliated cell that entered Iran through the northwestern border and killed five members near Piranshahr in West Azerbaijan Province. The IRGC said the group carried improvised explosive devices, showing that Iran’s forces were active on two fronts while the Strait of Hormuz warning was being issued.
The immediate open question is whether Iran will attempt to stop vessels physically, rely on warnings, or use a different enforcement method if a ship follows the route announced by the International Maritime Organization and Oman. For now, the warning puts the burden on tankers and commercial vessels to choose between an Iranian-designated corridor and the risk of retaliation.
