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Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Sunday dismissed a new U.S. military task force aimed at choking Iran's land routes as "just a play on words," saying it would fail like previous blockade efforts.
"None of the naval, air and land blockade plans have succeeded. Iron Gate is also one of the plans that will remain only on paper and exist only in the statements of U.S. officials and CENTCOM commanders," IRGC spokesman Hossein Mohebi said, according to Iranian media.
"The Americans cannot achieve their goal through this, which is to apply severe economic pressure to collapse and disintegrate the Iranian economy," Mohebi told Fars news agency, adding that Washington had previously "claimed that Iran will suffer an economic collapse within two weeks, but we witnessed that this did not happen."
"The war continues between us and the enemy, both militarily and economically," Mohebi said, adding, "Naturally, in a war, they might hit one of our vessels. But we’ll hit harder."
"America can never achieve the type of economic blockade it’s after, whichever iteration it takes," he said, adding that Iran has taken "all necessary measures to strengthen our relations with neighboring countries" and describing the conflict as a hybrid war.
Iran shares land borders with seven countries, Iraq, Türkiye, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, and also borders the Caspian Sea.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said Saturday its roughly 20-member Task Force Iron Gate will coordinate with other agencies to prevent the movement of advanced weapons, dual-use technologies, sanctioned materials and illegal revenue across Iran’s land borders and the Caspian Sea.
The IRGC Navy said three "non-compliant" tankers using an "unauthorized route" in the Strait of Hormuz had been hit by explosions and severe fires since early Sunday.
"These tankers are burning because they turned off their navigation and identification systems and because of the aggression of the American invading military," it said on Telegram, without naming the vessels.
"If vessels do not observe the rules we have announced and decide to cooperate with the United States, their fate will be the same," the IRGC said.
Mohebi claimed the strait is fully under IRGC Navy control, warning: "Mines are waiting."
Britain’s UKMTO said a tanker caught fire off Khasab, Oman, on Saturday, forcing the crew to evacuate, and another was struck by an "unknown projectile."
Emirati state media said 22 people were rescued from a burning vessel in the Gulf of Oman.
CENTCOM has said all mines have been cleared from the waterway and that it helped Gulf countries export 1.5 billion barrels of oil via Hormuz since the summer.
Iran’s armed forces spokesman Abolfazl Shekarchi said the U.S. had reached a dead end in West Asia, adding that its threats and strategies of "aggression, assassinations and maximum pressure" had failed against Iran’s deterrent capabilities.
The U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, 2026.
An “Islamabad Memorandum” signed June 17 was meant to halt attacks and reopen Hormuz, but implementation stalled, and Iran said it closed the strait again on July 12 after U.S. attacks resumed July 8.
The IRGC’s dismissal of Iron Gate signals no easing on either side.
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