Hormuz Standoff Escalates: US Military Aids Gulf Oil 'Shuttle' Exports, Iran Threatens UAE Digital Infrastructure

Following a joint US-Israeli airstrike on Iran on February 28, 2026 and a subsequent US Navy blockade of southern Iranian ports, US Central Command helped establish an oil 'shuttle export' system for Gulf Arab states via a southern corridor along Oman's coast. According to Al Jazeera, Mohsen Rezaei, Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said in remarks on Sunday evening that Central Command, with assistance from the UAE military, had been using small vessels to transfer oil to large tankers, and claimed that the Revolutionary Guard had been striking five to six vessels participating in the shuttle operations every night for weeks.

Rezaei bluntly stated the position: "You are smuggling, but the Strait is under Iranian control, and we manage it." The statement was clearly directed at US President Trump, who had recently claimed energy exports had returned to pre-war levels. Rezaei also promised a "harsh response" if Iran's energy and civilian infrastructure were attacked again.

Even more striking were Rezaei's threats directed at Arab states in the region: to strike US-linked data centers, submarine cables, and artificial intelligence facilities in the UAE and around the Strait of Hormuz. He also accused Saudi Arabia of assisting the United States in transporting oil while circumventing Iranian restrictions, but did not directly threaten Riyadh—Saudi Arabia is currently facing strikes from Yemen's Houthis, who maintain close ties with Tehran.

According to Al Jazeera, the shuttle arrangement built by the Gulf states relies on coordination between very large crude carriers (VLCCs) and smaller ships, under US military coordination. Crude is loaded at Arab ports and exits the Strait via the coast of Oman. To evade Iranian strikes, vessels typically switch off their Automatic Identification Systems (AIS transponders), sail at night, complete ship-to-ship transfers in the Gulf of Oman, and then return for another loading. Citing Michelle Wiese Bockmann, senior maritime intelligence analyst at London-based shipping analytics firm Windward, Al Jazeera reported: "Under international maritime law, which underpins annual seaborne trade of 11 billion tons, vessels have what's called transit passage rights. So what Oman is doing is allowing vessels to transit in line with international maritime law, but with US military assistance."

But the corridor is becoming increasingly dangerous. The report noted that between Sunday and early Monday, multiple vessels were attacked, including two outbound oil tankers and one tanker moored near the port of Sohar in Oman—where ship-to-ship transfers are said to take place. Additional vessels were hit by projectiles last week, indicating the scope of strikes has expanded beyond the Strait itself and now targets the shuttle system directly. According to Windward figures, at least 15 vessels were attacked in October 2026 alone.

Before the war, the Strait of Hormuz handled roughly one-fifth of global oil and natural gas shipments. Windward data show that in the final week of September, just 31 vessels transited the Strait per day, far below the pre-war level of 138 vessels per day. Of the 45 vessels attacked by Iran in the third quarter of 2026, 87 percent were oil tankers, approximately 47 percent belonged to Gulf Arab state oil companies, and 93 percent of the attacks took place within the Strait of Hormuz. Most strikes targeted precisely those vessels that had switched off their transponders and were using the southern corridor.

The Revolutionary Guard has also deliberately amplified the "mine threat" narrative, claiming to have laid mines in the Strait since the war began and asserting that three oil tankers suffered severe damage after hitting mines over the weekend. A video released by the Guard showing a vessel on fire was attributed to a mine strike, but no clear mine detonation is visible in the footage.

The costs of the war are being passed on to ordinary people worldwide. Windward estimates that freight rates have risen to 25 to 30 percent of the cost of Gulf crude oil, compared with just 1 to 3 percent before the war. National oil companies of various countries have been forced to offer discounts of up to $35 per barrel—well below official selling prices. The root cause is a severe shortage of tankers willing to risk transiting the Strait. Some 15 to 20 percent of VLCCs have been tied up by the inefficient logistics of the shuttle-transfer arrangement, and the escalation of attacks together with exposed loading ports and anchorages have further strained capacity.

Bockmann warned: "The more effective this corridor is for oil and gas transit, the less leverage Iran has over the Strait of Hormuz, and the more attacks we see against vessels using the southern corridor." She added: "This is having a knock-on impact on freight rates and values across all vessel classes worldwide."

On the Tehran side, Aziz, a senior Iran analyst at Crisis Group, wrote on X: "The question is whether Tehran has overestimated its ability to sustain this pressure in the face of the conflict's mounting economic costs on Iran itself." According to Al Jazeera, Iran claims that the US side has accepted some of its seven conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz and ending the conflict, but insists that all conditions must be fully met before any deal is reached.

The coexistence of military intervention, blockade, and shuttle mechanism reveals the dual logic of this war: on one hand, the US military is using international maritime law as a basis to escort Gulf oil exports; on the other, it is using sanctions and blockades to weaponize its chokehold on Iran's energy lifelines. The switch-off of transponders, nighttime sailing, and US-'coordinated' transit arrangements within the shuttle system stand in sharp tension with the 'transit passage rights' asserted under international maritime law. When freight eats up a third of crude costs, when countries are forced to move volumes with billions of dollars in discounts, it is not the political leaders who launched the war who bear the burden—it is gas stations, factories, and every ordinary person paying the energy bill.