Iran’s military said it has expanded its surveillance of the Strait of Hormuz by deploying new units to target ships, amid a desperate tussle between Tehran and Washington to control the waterway, among the world’s most important passages for energy transport. With the United States naval blockade of Iran’s southern ports in place and sanctions tightening, Tehran has repeatedly said it will pursue military and diplomatic efforts to put pressure on Washington to submit to its demands regarding reopening the strait. Tehran’s latest announcement coincides with a surge in attacks in the waterway and a fall in oil transit after crude flows had risen back to pre-war levels in September.
Chris Featherstone, a political scientist at the University of York in the United Kingdom, told Al Jazeera the increased attacks and their impact on energy flows demonstrate the fragility of the strait as a key pathway for oil exports. So, what’s going on and who controls the Strait of Hormuz now? Iran’s Navy said it has deployed operational units in a new formation “east of the Strait of Hormuz and across the Sea of Oman and the Arabian Sea, after identifying a tanker that sustained damage and caught fire”, according to a report by the Iranian news and documentary network Press TV on Tuesday.
The navy said these units would maintain “real time surveillance of enemy activities and maritime traffic in the region”. It also warned vessels not to switch off their transponders and urged them to coordinate with Iranian armed forces for safe passage through the area. Separately, an Iranian official told the news agency that Tehran had started using different offensive tactics against vessels it considered in violation of its restrictions about 10 days ago, adding that this had led to an increase in attacks on such ships.
The strategy includes a change in the type as well as the pace of attacks, with one goal being to influence the outcome of the November midterm elections in the US, according to the official. Ships in the Strait of Hormuz have been experiencing the worst spate of attacks since the start of the US and Israel’s war on Iran in late February. According to maritime tracking firm Kpler, 10 tankers were struck in the strait between September 28 and October 4, followed by another strike on October 5.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) centre has separately recorded 15 other attacks between October 6 and October 14, with 11 of them occurring in just the past four days. They include a container ship and a tanker hit by unknown projectiles in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, UKMTO said. Iran maintains that its attacks and restrictions in the waterway are a matter of national security and self-defence in response to the US-Israel war.
Iranian authorities have also signalled they intend to disrupt a US-assisted shuttle system that has enabled more energy exports through the strait during the war. In its latest report on Sunday, the US Navy-led Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC) noted that the threat to merchant shipping in the Strait of Hormuz remained “severe”, the second-highest level. Attacks by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), “attempted attacks, and/or harassment activity persisted including UAV overflight, targeted surveillance of merchant shipping, and occasional VHF hailing,” JMIC said.
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