Iran on Monday warned that it would retaliate against any fresh US attacks on its assets, cautioning that the region's energy production chain was "sprawling, accessible and exposed", with US oil and gas companies also sharing that vulnerability.
"Strike our assets and you get struck," Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said after US and Iranian strikes on shipping at the weekend that pushed oil prices up to six-week highs at one point on Monday.
On Sunday, senior Iranian security official Mohsen Rezaei said Iran would announce plans for a new restricted zone in the Gulf in the coming days, and that it would soon approve maps of a new shipping corridor through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has throttled traffic through the strait, a vital global oil and gas supply route, since the war with the United States began with US and Israeli strikes on February 28.
Underlining Iran's defiance, Qalibaf issued a new threat to respond to any US strikes, in what appeared to be a response to a warning by US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth that Iran's oil tanker fleet was defenceless.