Iran tries to tighten its grip on Hormuz: 77 vessels put on sanctions list with detention and seizure threats
Euro Times – Stockholm
Iran is trying to expand its control over shipping through the Strait of Hormuz after an Iranian authority responsible for handling transit requests issued an updated list of 77 vessels that Tehran says violated its shipping protocols, warning that the vessels could face penalties including detention and seizure.
The move marks a new phase in the struggle over Hormuz. Alongside military confrontation, attacks on shipping and US pressure on Iranian oil exports, Tehran is now trying to turn its operational leverage in the strait into its own system of maritime rules and sanctions covering both vessels and the companies that service them.
According to a Reuters report published on Monday, September 14, Iran’s authority handling passage requests said vessels on the list could face fines, detention or even seizure if they fall within the reach of Iranian enforcement.
77 vessels on the list
The updated list contains 77 vessels that Iranian authorities say breached transit rules imposed by Tehran in the strait.
The warning does not stop with the listed ships. The Iranian authority said vessels that cooperate with or provide support to sanctioned ships could themselves be added to the list.
That suggests Tehran is trying to extend the impact of the system beyond individual vessels to the commercial and logistical networks surrounding them.
The Iranian measures, however, remain unilateral measures, rather than international sanctions issued by the United Nations or another international authority — an important distinction when assessing their legal reach beyond areas where Iran can exercise direct influence.
Insurers and classification societies drawn into the confrontation
The most sensitive part of the Iranian announcement is the attempt to move pressure from vessels themselves to the companies that make commercial shipping possible.
According to Reuters, Iranian authorities called on insurance companies, protection and indemnity clubs (P&I) and ship classification societies to stop providing services to vessels on the list, warning of consequences for continuing to deal with them.
P&I clubs play a crucial role in global shipping by providing cover for risks including accidents, pollution, damage and third-party liabilities.
Classification societies are also essential to verifying vessel safety and compliance with technical standards required to operate in international ports and markets.
Trying to extend the sanctions to these institutions therefore carries potentially greater significance than simply publishing a vessel list, even though Iran’s ability to compel global compliance remains limited.
From military leverage to regulating passage
The development reveals a new dimension of the struggle for control over Hormuz.
Iran is no longer merely asserting that it can close the strait or attack vessels it considers hostile. It is trying to impose rules defining who can pass, how they can pass and under what conditions.
The move follows months of confrontation between Iran and the United States in and around the strait, including attacks on ships, military operations, mine-clearing efforts and US attempts to provide safer routes for commercial vessels.
Hormuz traffic falls again
The Iranian announcement comes while shipping through the strait remains far below pre-war levels.
Ship-tracking data cited in a separate Reuters report on Monday showed commodity-vessel traffic through Hormuz falling to single digits per day over the weekend, compared with an average of about 14 vessels a day during the previous 10 days.
Only four commodity vessels exited the Gulf through the strait over the weekend, while 10 entered.
Reuters noted that those figures do not necessarily include vessels sailing with their Automatic Identification System, or AIS, switched off, meaning actual traffic could be somewhat higher.
The comparison with the pre-war period nevertheless shows the scale of the decline. Until February 28, before the war began, around 125 transits by large commercial vessels were recorded each day through Hormuz, a route that carried volumes equivalent to roughly one-fifth of global crude oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.
Washington squeezes Iranian oil
Iran’s move also comes amid a US campaign targeting Iranian oil exports.
Reuters reported that the US blockade targeting vessels linked to Iranian oil trade has effectively halted most Iranian crude exports through Hormuz since mid-July.
The strait has therefore become an arena for two competing systems of maritime pressure. The United States is trying to prevent vessels carrying Iranian oil from operating normally, while Tehran is responding with rules and lists targeting ships it considers in breach of its transit regime.
That is turning navigation from a purely security issue into a confrontation that also encompasses insurance, finance, ship classification and commercial decisions by shipping companies.
Costs can rise without a missile being fired
For shipping companies, the problem does not begin only when a vessel is hit by a missile or drone.
As the risk of detention, sanctions, loss of insurance or changing transit conditions rises, so does the cost of operating vessels through the region.
Those risks could encourage some companies to avoid the strait, raise freight rates, demand additional insurance premiums or use more expensive alternative routes.
This is especially significant as other energy routes are also under pressure. Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline, one of the main land-based alternatives to Hormuz, has itself been attacked and temporarily halted, while risks in the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb are rising with the Houthi advance in Yemen.
A battle over who sets the rules in Hormuz
The list of 77 vessels therefore reflects a struggle much larger than a dispute over a group of ships.
The central question is now: who has the practical ability to set the rules of passage through Hormuz?
Iran is relying on geography and military power to impose transit protocols and penalties, while the United States relies on its naval and military presence and its sanctions network to protect shipping routes and squeeze Iranian oil exports.
Between them are shipping, energy and insurance companies that increasingly have to make daily decisions about whether the risks of using the strait remain acceptable.
That is why Iran’s new list may matter less as a set of sanctions on 77 individual vessels than as another step in Tehran’s attempt to turn its operational leverage over parts of Hormuz traffic into a lasting system for regulating shipping and imposing costs on those that refuse to comply.
