An Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps senior official said on Monday that the Strait of Hormuz is closed, threatening that if any vessels pass through it, Iran “will set those ships ablaze,” state media reported.

Choking off the Persian Gulf waterway, the world’s most vital oil export route, threatens to send crude prices soaring. However, Fox News cited the US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) as saying the strait was still open.

In remarks carried by Iran’s state media, Ebrahim Jabari, a senior adviser to the Guards commander-in-chief, said: “The Strait [of Hormuz] is closed. If anyone tries to pass, the heroes of the Revolutionary Guards and the regular navy will set those ships ablaze.”

It was the most explicit threat to Hormuz shipping by Iran’s Guards since the force told ships on Saturday that the export route was closed.

Earlier Monday, the Revolutionary Guards claimed to have attacked an allegedly US-linked oil tanker in the Hormuz Strait as part of a wave of strikes retaliating against the US-Israeli attack.

“The ATHE NOVA tanker, one of the American allies in the Strait of Hormuz, is still on fire after being hit by two drones,” the Guards said in a statement.

The restrictions on traffic through the Strait were triggered by US and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 seeking to topple its regime, with US President Donald Trump offering Iranians help in ousting the ruling clerics. Among those killed in the opening salvo was Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Trump had long threatened to strike Iran, first over its bloody crackdown on anti-regime protesters in January and more recently over its refusal to dismantle its nuclear program.

In response to the US-Israeli strikes, Iran has fired deadly ballistic missile barrages at Israel and at Arab Gulf neighbors hosting US military bases, including Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

With the closure of the Hormuz Strait, Tehran made good on years of threats to block the narrow waterway in retaliation for any attack on the Islamic Republic.

About 20 percent of the world’s daily oil consumption passes through the Strait of Hormuz, which is about 33 kilometers (21 miles) wide at its narrowest point and connects the biggest Gulf oil producers, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates, with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.

Oil markets have focused on tensions between Tehran and its old foes, the US and Israel, fearing that a full-blown conflict would disrupt supplies and destabilize the region. Oil prices jumped as much as 13% to their highest since January 2025 on Monday as Iran and Israel stepped up attacks.

Global shipping had already experienced disruptions linked to drone and missile attacks carried out by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi rebels, who started targeting Red Sea shipping following the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, that sparked the war in Gaza.

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