IRAN plans to announce an “exclusion zone” outside the Strait of Hormuz aimed at vessels it believes are attempting to transit the waterway, according to the new head of the country’s Supreme National Security Council.

Mohsen Rezaei gave few detail in his comments to the state broadcaster on Sunday, the day after the US had struck three Iranian oil tankers in response to Tehran firing ballistic missiles at US warships. Iran’s previous attacks at sea had targeted commercial shipping.

The new zone should be announced in the coming days and weeks and “will begin from the line of the US naval blockade, extend towards the Strait of Hormuz and, from this side, continue into the Persian Gulf,” Mr Rezaei said.

“Any ship that enters this area with the intention of passing through the Strait of Hormuz and is identified will be placed on our sanctions list.”

It is not clear where Iran defines the location of the weeks-long US blockade, which is aimed at Iranian ports and keeping Tehran from exporting oil.

Iran said earlier on Sunday that it had struck an unmanned US vessel that was trying to enter the Strait of Hormuz, a statement that the US military dismissed as a “total lie.”

The United States and Iran resumed attacks last week, following a month of relative calm, with the Strait of Hormuz and areas along Iran’s southern coast again being targeted.

Also on Sunday, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright claimed that an average of nine million barrels of oil a day were passing through the strait, though his estimate appeared to exceed the averages of the past 28 days given by TankerTrackers.com and other sources.

Meanwhile, Mr Rezaei said: “Every day, we are selling one million, one and a half million [barrels], as if Iran’s oil production and trade are continuing as usual.”