Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has issued a stern warning to international commercial vessels against using the newly announced southern transit corridor in the Strait of Hormuz. The threat comes shortly after the Oman Maritime Security Centre, in coordination with the International Maritime Organization (IMO), published specific navigation guidelines, waiting areas, and waypoints in the southern route to help safely evacuate thousands of seafarers stranded in the Arabian Gulf since the conflict began.
The IRGC declared the unauthorized Omani route ‘unacceptable and completely dangerous,’ asserting that the only permitted paths through the critical chokepoint are the northern corridors designated and controlled by Tehran. The escalating rhetorical friction over the maritime lanes has put regional logistics operators on high alert as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and GCC ministers meet in neighboring Bahrain to discuss the delicate framework of a preliminary peace accord.
