00:16Iran just drew new lines on the map.
00:19The IRGC Navy has formally defined a maritime zone covering the Strait of Hormuz and declared it under Iranian military
00:28control.
00:28Not suggested, not warned about, defined.
00:32With coordinates, with maps, with designated routes and danger zones.
00:37The world's most critical oil choke point just got a new landlord.
00:42Here's exactly what Iran has claimed.
00:45The zone runs from Mount Mubarak on Iran's Hormuzgan coast near the Gulf of Oman entrance all the way south
00:52to Fujairah in the UAE.
00:54East to west, it stretches from Keshm Island, a major IRGC base area, across toward Um al-Kawain on the
01:02UAE side.
01:03That is not a small patch of water.
01:06That is the entire strategic throat of the Persian Gulf.
01:09The IRGC has released navigation maps showing designated shipping corridors, including what they're calling the Larik Corridor, hugging the Iranian
01:19shoreline.
01:20There are marked danger zones in the central strait, and any vessel that wants to transit, it needs coordination.
01:27It needs approval.
01:29It needs to play by Iran's new rules.
01:31The IRGC framed this as a directive straight from Supreme Leader Moshtabakh Khomeini, covering nearly 2,000 kilometers of Iranian
01:41coastline, turning these waters into what they called a source of livelihood and strength for Iran.
01:48Let's be clear about what's actually being claimed here, and what isn't.
01:51Under international law, specifically UNCLOS, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Strait of Hormuz has a
01:59transit passage regime.
02:01International shipping has the legal right to move through it.
02:04That hasn't changed on paper.
02:06But Iran isn't arguing law right now.
02:09Iran is arguing facts on the water.
02:11The IRGC's asymmetric fleet, speedboats, mines, anti-ship missiles in confined waters makes challenging this zone extraordinarily dangerous for any
02:22commercial vessel.
02:23You don't need to win a legal argument when you have a mosquito fleet and you're willing to use it.
02:29Shipping companies already know this.
02:32Traffic through the strait has dropped sharply since February 2026.
02:36Routes are being rerouted.
02:38Insurance premiums are through the roof.
02:40The United States hasn't accepted Iran's new map.
02:44Project Freedom, America's naval escort and guidance operation, launched May 4th specifically to push back against exactly this kind of
02:53Iranian maritime assertion.
02:55U.S. destroyers, over 100 aircraft, mine clearing operations, unmanned systems, all deployed to keep the strait open.
03:04Washington's message is direct.
03:06Freedom of navigation is non-negotiable.
03:09Tehran's message is equally direct.
03:12These are our waters now.
03:14Two maps, same strait, completely incompatible.
03:1820% of the world's oil moves through that narrow stretch of water.
03:23Iran has now formally declared military authority over it.
03:27The U.S. Navy disagrees.
03:28The next ship that tests those new Iranian lines will tell us everything about who's actually in control.
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