Iran claims it coordinated passage of 26 vessels out of Hormuz in 24 hours

Key points

• The IRGC claims to maintain control over the Strait of Hormuz despite the US blockade on Iran’s ports.
• Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has said it coordinated the transit of 26 vessels through the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours, as talks between Washington and Tehran over the resumption of traffic through the narrow waterway remain stalled.
• “Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is being carried out with permission and in coordination with the IRGC Navy,” the statement carried by Iran’s state-affiliated ISNA news agency said on Wednesday.
• Later on Wednesday, Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) published a new map of Hormuz on X, marking a controlled maritime zone that vessels will not be able transit without its authorisation.
• The authority said the zone stretches from Kuh-e Mubarak in Iran to south of Fujairah, in the United Arab Emirates, at the eastern entrance of the strait,...