Iran issued a fresh warning to the United States on Monday, threatening retaliation against additional American strikes and explicitly pointing to U.S.-linked oil and gas facilities across the Gulf as potential targets.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf declared that the region’s energy production infrastructure is widespread and vulnerable, warning that American companies operating around Gulf waters share that exposure. His comments followed U.S. and Iranian attacks on shipping over the weekend that further escalated the confrontation around the Strait of Hormuz.

Iranian security official Mohsen Rezaei also announced that Tehran plans to establish a new restricted zone in the Gulf and approve maps for a new shipping corridor through the Strait of Hormuz. Rezaei said the zone would begin where Iran considers the U.S. naval blockade to start and extend into additional Gulf waters. Ships entering the designated area could be placed on an Iranian sanctions list.

Tehran has sharply restricted traffic through Hormuz since the war began on February 28. The strait carried roughly one-fifth of global oil and gas shipments before the conflict, making Iran’s effort to control passage through the waterway one of its strongest forms of leverage against Washington.

The latest threats came after U.S. forces struck three Iranian oil tankers on Saturday, including a vessel near Kharg Island, Iran’s principal oil export hub. CENTCOM carried out the strikes after the IRGC attacked U.S. warships in the region. Traffic through Hormuz has since fallen to its lowest level since May, with an average of only 10 commodity vessels making the transit each day over the past 10 days.

The renewed military pressure comes as Washington’s economic campaign is increasingly squeezing Iran. Iranian officials have publicly acknowledged major problems involving inflation, unemployment, currency instability and the ability to protect production and livelihoods.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)