Iran plans 'exclusion zone' outside Hormuz

Tensions between the United States and Iran are ratcheting up again, after Tehran on Sunday unveiled plans to set up an "exclusion zone" outside the Strait of Hormuz, as the six-month-long conflict stays deadlocked while renewed fighting has shattered a period of relative calm.

The new zone will be declared in the coming days and weeks and it "will begin from the line of the US naval blockade, extend toward the Strait of Hormuz and stretch further into the Persian Gulf from this flank", Mohsen Rezaei, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told state-run IRIB TV.

"Any vessel identified entering this area with the intent of transiting the Strait of Hormuz will be added to our sanctions list."

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday that Iran-Oman negotiations on the designation of a temporary route have reached their final stage.

The understanding between the two countries regarding the route's designation would likely be registered with the International Maritime Organization in the coming days, Baghaei said at a weekly news conference in Tehran.

A fragile interim ceasefire between Iran and the US collapsed in July after exchanges of fire in the vital strait, through which one-fifth of the world's oil supplies previously flowed.

Fresh shipping data released on Monday showed traffic through the passage has slumped to its lowest level since May. Only two vessels transited on Saturday, with another six making the crossing on Sunday. Global crude oil prices edged higher to $97 a barrel early on Monday.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Sunday that "the era of proportionate responses has come to an end", as tensions between Tehran and Washington have escalated in recent weeks after the US carried out strikes on southern Iran, prompting retaliatory attacks by Iran on US military assets in the region.

Warships targeted

On Saturday, the US Central Command, or CENTCOM, which oversees US military operations in the Middle East, confirmed that two US warships — an aircraft carrier and a destroyer — had been targeted by Iranian missiles, though both evaded the strikes.

In response, CENTCOM said it had "permanently disabled" one vessel off Iran's key oil export hub of Kharg Island and a second one near Jask, while a third craft in the Gulf of Oman was "completely destroyed".

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps later retaliated, saying it had targeted three oil tankers sailing along unapproved routes in the Strait of Hormuz, alongside three US-affiliated vessels in other waters.

Iran's Foreign Ministry condemned the US strikes against Iranian tankers as illegal acts amounting to a "war crime" that violate the United Nations Charter.

As the conflict has impacted the oil-rich Gulf states, Anwar Gargash, the United Arab Emirates' presidential adviser, said on Monday that the UAE is building alternative routes for its energy exports and trade to ensure they are not "held hostage" by the conflict.

Stephen Zunes, founding chair of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco, said the US strikes "seemed to be more cathartic" and were carried out based on "frustration rather than any strategic calculations".

"We're going to be having an on-again, off-again war indefinitely with some intense periods," he told Al Jazeera. "Neither side is going to advance their cause by more fighting."

On Monday, a senior Qatari Foreign Ministry official said the ongoing conflict highlights that Gulf nations cannot rely solely on US strategic partnerships for their security.

"We need to realize in the Gulf that having international forces in the region, having a strategic alliance with the US is very important but is not enough. Self-sufficiency, when it comes to security, is the only way forward," ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari told a forum in Abu Dhabi.

Meanwhile, former US defense secretary Leon Panetta said the conflict may drag on for another six months and turn into another "forever war in the Middle East", with no clear end in sight.

"It's no mystery that the US and Iran are caught in a terrible stalemate, in which there really are very few options available to bring this war to an end," the former Pentagon chief told The Guardian, warning the standoff risks becoming "another failed war" in the Middle East "like Iraq and Afghanistan".

Agencies contributed to this story.

Contact the writers at cuihaipei@chinadaily.com.cn