Iran's Supreme National Security Council says Tehran will announce a maritime 'exclusion…

Iran escalated its rhetoric and legal posture today. The head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council said Tehran is preparing to announce a maritime 'exclusion zone' outside the Strait of Hormuz, where it intends to stop vessels attempting to transit without Iranian permission — a shift from ad hoc strikes toward a declared control zone. Iran's Foreign Ministry separately issued a pointed warning to South Korea, whose government has been weighing a more active naval role in the strait following the Sep 4 strike on its tanker: any participation in what Tehran called 'America's aggressive and interventionist actions' would be treated as 'complicity in overt military aggression.' The dispute over the strait's actual status sharpened too — Kpler shipping data shows traffic fell 28% to 77 vessels last week, while a senior US official told Al Jazeera the waterway is 'fully open' and under US Navy control, with Washington 'satisfied' with current oil and gas flows. Brent crude touched a nearly seven-week high of $97/bbl, extending a week that saw prices climb 8%; US retail gasoline hit a record Labor Day weekend average of $4.14/gallon, nearly a dollar higher than a year ago. On Ukraine, Russian combat losses reached approximately 1,497,980 as of Sep 7 (+1,540), and Ukraine's General Staff reported downing more than half a million aerial drones cumulatively since the 2022 invasion began.