THE 60-day Iranian sanctions waiver has been cut short following a wave of Iranian attacks in and around the Strait of Hormuz.

The US Office of Foreign Assets Control on Tuesday revoked General License X, which authorised a broad array of transactions pertaining to shipments of Iranian oil, petroleum products and petrochemicals products from June 21 to August 21.

General License X was replaced with General License X1, which allows a wind-down period of its predecessor until 0001 hrs on July 17, but does not permit “any new transactions, including purchases or loading of such products on or after July 7, 2026”.

The US policy reversal comes after three ships were attacked near the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, and less than three weeks after GL X was issued as part of the US-Iran Memorandum of Understandings.

An advisory from the Joint Maritime Information Center did not explicitly state whether the ships that were attacked had transited the SOH using the US-coordinated Omani route, however, the incidents’ description and location suggested that the attacks took place along its path. 

Shortly after Ofac revoked the licence, US Central Command said in a social media post that it had launched “a series of powerful strikes” in response to the three attacks, calling them a “clear violation” of the ceasefire. 

The recent attacks, coupled with the revocation of the waiver, underscore the fragile security situation in the strait, where transits have picked up notably post-MOU, but may now drop once again.

Little change to Iran’s oil flows

While GL X was longer and broader than a previous Iranian sanctions waiver issued in March, it was unlikely to fundamentally alter the nature of Iran’s oil trade given its limited duration and the compliance and regulatory risk that remained.

“The temporary nature of the authorisation meant many market participants were unlikely to make significant commercial or operational changes,” Claire Jungman, director of maritime risk & intelligence at Vortexa, said in a social media post.

No “meaningful” new buyers emerged during the period, and shipments “remained concentrated among the same established trading relationships and logistics networks that have historically handled Iranian barrels”, said Jungman.

According to Vortexa, Iran loaded about 27m barrels per day of crude and condensate between June 22 and Tuesday. That figure does not include cargoes already loaded on tankers prior to the licence issuance.