IRGC official says "traffic of violating vessels in the Strait of Hormuz has been completely stopped", Fars reports

• "An informed official close to the IRGC Navy announced that after the destruction of the navigational aid systems used by the violating vessels, the hitting of 3 oil tankers yesterday and the destruction of another violating oil tanker last night, the traffic of violating vessels has been completely stopped".
• "This informed official warned that if oil smuggling resumes, the dealing with violating vessels and their supporting technical systems will be carried out with much greater severity".
• "He also emphasized that the renewed air intervention of the US military and support for oil smuggling will be met with a more direct and decisive response, and the US military will be responsible for the consequences".

Interdiction of tanker traffic at the Strait of Hormuz is the standing tail-risk scenario in oil markets, and episodes of this kind have historically repriced Brent through the same channels: spot crude, prompt spreads flipping toward steeper backwardation, and very quickly tanker freight and war-risk insurance premia, which typically move before flat price fully does. The framing here is narrower than a full blockade, since the claim concerns 'violating' vessels in what Tehran describes as an anti-smuggling operation, but the report of tankers being struck and navigational aids destroyed pushes it toward the more serious end of the range of past harassment episodes. In comparable cases the price reaction has tended to persist while physical disruption is confirmed and to fade when it proves contained, making independent verification, from shipping trackers, insurers, and flag states, the key tell. The explicit threat against US forces matters because past escalation sequences in the Gulf have turned on whether the US escorts shipping and whether Iran treats that as a casus for widening targeting, which is where these episodes have historically become durable supply shocks rather than spikes. Worth watching are confirmation of vessels actually hit, the response of the tanker market and underwriters, any suspension of transits by majors or national carriers, and whether alternative pipeline routes to bypass the strait are activated. Statements carried by a domestic agency and attributed to an unnamed official warrant some caution on their own, a pattern seen in prior episodes where initial claims overstated the actual closure.