Iran's Revolutionary Guards escalated their interdiction of the residual traffic still moving through the Strait of Hormuz overnight, according to Iranian state media, while explicitly rejecting any suggestion that the waterway is being made safe for shipping.

An informed IRGC Navy official said navigational aid systems on the southern cliffs of the strait had been destroyed and that, as a result, no vessel was able to enter what Tehran calls the illegal route overnight [2]. The claim was carried by Mehr News and picked up by other outlets; no maritime authority has verified either the destruction or its effect on crossings [2].

The Guards' spokesman went further on Monday, denying that any war mines had been cleared from the strait and questioning the US assertion of control over the waterway. "We should ask the US president: How can you be in control of the Strait of Hormuz when several incidents involving ships occur there every day?" he said [1]. The same liveblog recorded UKMTO's Sunday confirmation that a tanker was struck by an unknown projectile while sailing outbound through the strait on Saturday and that another caught fire near Khasab, Oman, forcing its crew to evacuate [1] — strikes already counted in last week's toll of eight attacks in the strait and three in the wider Gulf.

Separately, Pars Today, citing state television, reported the IRGC Navy's claim that a third non-compliant oil tanker exploded in the strait within 24 hours [3]. The full report was not retrievable and no independent monitor has confirmed the strike [3].

For flows, the significance is directional rather than measured. The previous check quantified the strait as throttled, not sealed: roughly 30 US-assisted transits a day on November 5-7, single-digit to low-double-digit independent crossings, and overall traffic near 20 per cent of prewar levels. Destroying navigation aids on the southern cliffs appears aimed squarely at the unauthorized, often dark, segment of that residual traffic. Whether it actually reduced crossings is not yet measurable from independent data, and none of the Iranian claims identifies cargoes. IMF PortWatch's latest weekly print still records one completed transit, on November 1, against a pre-crisis norm near 85 a day, while AIS shows about 100 vessels under way in the wider Gulf — movement inside the region, not completed strait crossings. Whether any commercial oil cargo is currently passing through Hormuz remains unconfirmed.

Diplomacy showed no sign of unlocking the standoff. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that talks had been unproductive because Tehran's demands were unacceptable and unrealistic, while Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said mediators had been inactive for days because of US election results [1].