Iran Targets US-UAE Oil 'Shuttle' System Through Strait of Hormuz

Tehran, Iran – Iranian officials have signaled they will seek to disrupt the Arab-run "shuttle" shipping system backed by the United States, which has helped boost energy exports through the Strait of Hormuz during the war launched by the US and Israel against Iran.

With the US Navy blockading southern Iranian ports and sanctions tightening, Tehran says it will pursue military and diplomatic measures to pressure Washington into meeting its demands for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

The strategic strait – through which about a fifth of the world's oil and gas passed before the war – has been all but closed to shipping since Iranian attacks began following US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran on February 28.

However, the US Navy is reported to have opened a route allowing Gulf states to export oil and other goods amid the energy crisis.

Direct threat

Iran's Security Council secretary, Mohsen Rezaei, responded on Sunday evening, declaring the shuttle system is now a clear target for Tehran.

Rezaei accused US Central Command, with support from the United Arab Emirates' military, of using small vessels to transfer oil to larger tankers. He claimed Iran has attacked five to six ships taking part in the system every night for several weeks.

"You are smuggling, but the strait is under Iran's control and we manage it," Rezaei said.

The remarks appeared aimed at US President Donald Trump, who has praised energy exports that at times reached pre-war levels in recent weeks.

Rezaei seemed to be conveying that Iran wants long-term control over Hormuz, while promising a strong response if Iranian energy and civilian infrastructure is attacked again.

His threats appeared directed at regional Arab states, with a warning that digital infrastructure could become a target. Rezaei threatened cables, data centers and US-linked artificial intelligence facilities in the UAE and around the Strait of Hormuz.

Rezaei also accused Saudi Arabia of helping the US ship oil around Iran's restrictions. He did not, however, threaten direct attacks on Riyadh – a country currently being targeted by Tehran-aligned Houthi forces in Yemen.

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

Iran says the US has accepted some of Tehran's seven conditions for fully reopening the Strait of Hormuz and ending the war. But Tehran insists a deal will only materialize once all its demands are met.

Hamidreza Azizi, a senior Iran analyst at the Crisis Group, said this reflects Tehran's assessment that it faces no immediate pressure to reach a deal with the US, because its leverage at Hormuz has global effects.

"The question, however, is whether Tehran is overestimating its ability to sustain this pressure, as the economic cost of the confrontation for Iran itself keeps rising," Azizi wrote on X.

The shipping system

The system involves very large crude carriers (VLCCs) and smaller vessels coordinating with the US military to load crude at Arab ports and use a southern corridor near the Omani coast to exit the strait.

The ships typically switch off transponders and move at night to reduce the risk of being targeted by Iran. After transferring oil between ships in the Gulf of Oman, some shuttle vessels return to load more cargo.

Multiple ships were targeted overnight from Sunday to Monday, including two tankers leaving port and one anchored near the Omani port city of Sohar, where ship-to-ship oil transfers are believed to be taking place.

Other vessels were also hit by shellfire last week, showing the attacks have extended beyond the Strait of Hormuz to target the shuttle system.

The IRGC has also increasingly pushed the message that sea mines, believed to have been laid across the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the war, pose a serious threat to ships trying to pass without coordinating with Iran's Persian Gulf Strait Authority.

The IRGC said three tankers were heavily damaged over the weekend after striking mines. It also released video of a burning ship said to have hit a mine, though the footage did not appear to show a mine exploding.

'Ripple effects'

The shuttle system has given Arab national oil companies an outlet out of Hormuz via the southern corridor near Oman.

Michelle Wiese Bockmann, a senior maritime intelligence analyst at London-based Windward, said the system has proven highly effective.

"Under international maritime law, which governs 11 billion tonnes of seaborne trade each year, ships have what is called the right of transit passage," Bockmann told Al Jazeera. "So Oman has allowed ships to pass under international maritime law, but they have US military support."

Tehran says shipping will be disrupted as long as the US maintains its naval blockade strangling Iran, while stepping up efforts to prevent Arab states from exporting oil. At least 15 ships are reported to have been targeted in October so far, according to Windward.

"The more effective the route is at facilitating oil and gas shipments, the less leverage Iran has at Hormuz, and the more we see attacks on ships using the southern corridor," Bockmann said.

Windward data shows 31 ships crossed the Strait of Hormuz per day in the last week of September. That is significantly lower than the 138 ships before the war.

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

About 47 percent belonged to national shipping fleets of Gulf Arab energy companies, Windward noted, and 93 percent of the attacks took place in the Strait of Hormuz. Most of the attacks targeted ships passing through the southern corridor with transponders switched off.

The attacks have helped drive shipping costs sharply higher. Shipping costs account for 25-30 percent of the price of Gulf crude, compared with just 1-3 percent before the war, according to Windward. National oil companies have had to offer discounts of up to $35 a barrel against official selling prices.

The main driver of the increase is a shortage of tankers willing to make the dangerous voyage. About 15-20 percent of very large crude carriers are stuck in an inefficient logistics system reliant on shuttle transfers, complicated by escalating attacks and risks at loading ports and anchorages.

"This is causing ripple effects across all vessel types in terms of freight costs and values worldwide," Bockmann said.