The United States has sanctioned the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, the body Iran has set up to manage the Strait of Hormuz, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday.
- The authority is a body Iran has set up to manage requests for passage through the Strait of Hormuz.
- Tehran's grip on the strait, the conduit for about a fifth of the global oil supply, has sent the world economy into turmoil.
- It closed the strait after the U.S. and Israel launched its war against Iran on February 28.
- Anyone cooperating with the authority may be providing support to and receiving services from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and may be sanctioned, the Treasury said in a statement.
- "The Iranian military’s latest attempt to extort global maritime trade is proof that Economic Fury has left the regime desperate for cash," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
- The Persian Gulf Strait Authority published a map last week reaffirming Tehran's claims to a wide stretch of water on either side of the choke point.