In Reply to: Lots of fighting going on in the Middle East. posted by mh on September 08, 2026 at 10:15:10
ran warned on Monday that it could target U.S. oil and gas interests in the Gulf if the U.S. launches any new attacks on its assets.
Responding to U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s warning that “if Iran shoots at U.S. ships, we will destroy (and sink) their oil tankers,” Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said: “It’s simple: the oil and gas production chain here is sprawling, accessible, and exposed. American oil and gas companies across these waters and facilities share that exposure. Strike our assets and you get struck."
Ghalibaf’s warning comes as Tehran seeks greater leverage amid Washington’s ongoing economic pressure campaign and stalled efforts to negotiate an end to the war that the U.S. and Israel launched on Feb. 28.
Mohsen Rezaei, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary, said Monday that "economic warfare will be met by a maritime exclusion zone across the Persian Gulf to the blockade perimeter." The "exclusion zone” in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman would begin at the blockade line, extend through the Strait of Hormuz, and continue into the Persian Gulf, Rezaei said. Vessels entering the zone to transit the Strait would be placed on an Iranian sanctions list.
The latest flare-up began Saturday, when Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) attacked U.S. warships in the region. The U.S. responded by striking three Iranian oil tankers, including one near Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export hub. The U.S. and Iran have for the past week exchanged a flurry of attacks, ending a brief respite in active hostilities. Oil prices reached near six-week highs on Monday as commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway through which a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments flowed before the war, has fallen sharply.