ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) suspended all transit through the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, amid ongoing military exchanges between Tehran and Washington and its allies in the strategic corridor.
“Due to the ongoing aggressive actions by United States military forces in the region, transit through the #Strait_of_Hormuz is currently not possible,” PGSA posted on X, noting that “as soon as stability and calm are restored, all requests will be reviewed based on their order of submission and schedule, and permits will be issued gradually.”
The announcement comes following strikes and counterstrikes that had continued since July 8 - weeks after the two sides signed the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding in mid-June, which established a ceasefire on all fronts and reopened the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping following a six-week war that started in late February after US-Israeli airstrikes targeted several locations in Iran.
The two sides had also escalated their rhetoric, with Tehran threatening regional infrastructure and oil flows if Iranian facilities were targeted or Iran was barred from exporting oil, and Trump vowing to strike a bridge and power plant for every vessel Iran's military attacks in Hormuz and threatening to strike a new nuclear facility Iran is allegedly building in central Isfahan province.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) on Thursday said that its forces had “redirected 24 commercial vessels, disabled 2, and boarded 2 to ensure full compliance.”
Earlier in the day, the command refuted Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) statements regarding the Strait of Hormuz non-Iranian corridors being “dangerous for commercial vessels,” stating that “the immediate dangers posed to commercial vessels and their civilian crews are the IRGC’s verbal threats and attempted attacks.”
CENTCOM had reinstated its blockade on Iranian ports in late July after it lifted its first blockade following the signing of the Islamabad memorandum. The previously lifted blockade had redirected and disabled over 150 ships since its imposement in mid-April.
In early May, Iran established the Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) to enforce a permission-based transit system in the Strait of Hormuz, collecting fees from vessels and inspecting or targeting those that do not comply.
The Strait of Hormuz, a vital chokepoint linking the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, handles roughly 21 million barrels of oil per day during peacetime - about a quarter of global seaborne oil trade and around 20 percent of global petroleum consumption. It also serves as a key route for nearly 20 percent of global liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports.
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