Iran Targets US-UAE Oil Shuttle Tankers in Strait of Hormuz

The IRGC is attacking more ships, said to be part of a shuttle operation transporting crude oil across the Strait of Hormuz.

TEHRAN, Iran – Iranian officials have announced plans to disrupt the Arab- and US-controlled shuttle system that has enabled more energy exports through the Strait of Hormuz during the US-Israeli war against Iran.

With the US naval blockade on Iran's southern ports and the tightening of sanctions, Tehran has said it will pursue military and diplomatic efforts to pressure Washington to give in to its demands on reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

List of 3 items List 1 of 3 What new measures does Iran take to deal with the economic pressure of the United States?

List 2 of 3 Saudi Arabia says the East-West pipeline pumps 5.8 million barrels per day

List 3 of 3 Hormuz ship attacks: Is the increase in oil exports sustainable?

end of list The strategic waterway, through which nearly a fifth of the world's pre-war oil and gas flowed, has been largely closed to shipping since the February 28 U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran following Iranian attacks.

But the US Navy has reportedly cleared a path for Gulf states to export oil and other goods amid the energy crisis.

Iran's security chief Mohsen Rezaei said in response to this issue on Sunday night: "The shuttle system is now an obvious target for Tehran."

Rezaei claimed that the American Central Command uses smaller vessels to transfer oil to larger tankers with the help of the United Arab Emirates Army. He claimed that Iran had been targeting five or six participating ships at night for weeks.

"You are smuggling, but this strait is under the control of Iran and we manage it.

It appears to be a taunt to US President Donald Trump, who in recent weeks has welcomed energy exports at times to pre-war levels.

Rezaei appears to be giving the impression that Iran wants to maintain a lasting hold on Hormuz, and has promised a tough response if it attacks Iran's energy and civilian infrastructure again.

His threats appear to target countries in the Arab region, warning that digital infrastructure may be targeted. Rezaei threatened cables, data centers and artificial intelligence facilities related to the United States in the UAE and around the Strait of Hormuz.

Rezaei also accused Saudi Arabia of helping the US take oil away from Iran's restrictions. But he did not threaten a direct attack on Riyadh - which is currently targeted by Yemen's Tehran-aligned Houthis.

In early September, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps threatened oil tankers in the ports and anchorages of Kuwait and Bahrain, citing US attacks on Iranian oil tankers. It accused both countries of complicity by hosting US armed forces.

Iran has claimed that America has accepted some of Tehran's seven conditions for the complete reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and ending the war. But Tehran insists that the agreement will be realized only when all its demands are met.

Hamidreza Azizi, Iran's senior analyst at the Crisis Group, said that this shows Tehran's clear assessment that it is not under any conditions. The pressure to reach an agreement with the US since its pressure in Hormuz has a global impact.

Azizi writes in X: "But the question is, is Tehran overestimating its ability to sustain this pressure given the growing economic costs of confrontation for Iran itself?"

The system consists of very large crude carriers (VLCCs) and smaller vessels that coordinate with the US military to load crude oil at Arab ports and use the southern corridors near the coast of Oman to exit the strait.

Ships often turn off their transmitters and travel at night to minimize the risk of being targeted by the Iranians. After transferring ship to ship in the Gulf of Oman, some shuttles return to load more.

Several ships were targeted overnight Sunday into Monday, including two outbound tankers and one at an anchorage near the port city of Sohar in Oman, where ship-to-ship transfers are said to take place.

Other ships were hit by gunfire last week, suggesting the attacks extended beyond the Strait of Hormuz and targeted the shuttle system.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has also increasingly created the narrative that sea mines, believed to have been planted across the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the war, pose a serious threat to ships attempting to navigate without coordination with Iran's Persian Gulf Organization.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced that three oil tankers were seriously damaged over the weekend after being hit by a mine. It also released images of a ship on fire that it said had been hit by a mine, although the footage did not appear to show the mine exploding.

The shuttle system has provided Arab national oil companies with an exit from Hormuz through the southern corridor near Oman.

The system has been very effective, said Michelle Weiss Bookman, London-based senior maritime intelligence analyst at Windward.

"Under international maritime law, which accounts for 11 billion tons of maritime trade annually, ships have the right of passage," Bookman told Al Jazeera. So what Oman has done is allowed ships to pass through under international maritime law, but they have had US military assistance.

Tehran says shipping will be disrupted as long as the United States maintains its suffocating naval blockade against Iran, which has also stepped up its efforts to counter Arab countries' efforts to export oil. According to Winward, at least 15 ships have been targeted so far in October.

"The more effective this route becomes in facilitating the transportation of oil and gas, the less leverage Iran will have on Hormuz, and we will see more attacks on ships using that southern corridor," Bookman said.

Data from Windward shows that 31 ships per day passed through the Strait of Hormuz in the last week of September. This was much less than in 138 before the war.

Eighty-seven percent of the 45 ships targeted by Iran in the third quarter of 2026 were oil tankers.

About 47 percent belonged to Windward noted that the national shipping fleet of Arab energy companies in the Persian Gulf and 93 percent of the attacks occurred in the Strait of Hormuz. Most of the attacks targeted ships passing through the southern corridor with their transmitters turned off.

These attacks have contributed to a massive increase in shipping costs. According to Windward, shipping accounts for 25 to 30 percent of the cost of Gulf crude oil, compared to just 1 to 3 percent before the war. National oil companies have resorted to offering discounts of up to 35 dollars per barrel below the official selling prices.

The main reason is the increasing shortage of oil tankers willing to pass through this dangerous passage. Between 15 and 20 percent of very large crude carriers (VLCCs) are connected to an inefficient logistics system that relies on shuttle transfers, which is complicated by increased attacks and exposure at loading ports and berths.

"This has cascading effects for all classes of ships on shipping and values around the world," Bookman said.