The Council of the European Union announced that EU foreign ministers voted Friday to expand the bloc's Iran sanctions framework to include threats to freedom of navigation in the Middle East.

The amended framework enables the EU to impose restrictive measures against individuals and entities linked to Iran's conduct in the Strait of Hormuz. The decision formalizes a political agreement reached at the Foreign Affairs Council on April 21, The Caspian Post reports, citing Shaq news.

"Iran's actions against vessels transiting through the Strait of Hormuz are contrary to international law," the Council said, citing violations of established rights of transit and innocent passage through international straits.

The sanctions regime was created to address Iran's military support for Russia's war in Ukraine and for armed groups operating across the Middle East and the Red Sea. Its expansion reflects a broadening of EU concern to include maritime security. Measures available under the framework include travel bans, asset freezes, and prohibitions on EU entities providing funds or resources to listed individuals and organizations.

Despite active US and EU sanctions, the International Energy Agency reported Friday that Tehran is exporting 1.4 million barrels of oil per day.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy reported today that 35 ships -including oil tankers and container vessels- had crossed the Strait of Hormuz in the preceding 24 hours under what it described as IRGC coordination. A day earlier, the IRGC put the figure at 31 vessels.

Iran’s control of Hormuz, through which roughly 20 percent of globally traded oil moves, has entered nuclear negotiations as an open dispute. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused Iran of attempting to establish a "tolling system" over the waterway and said Tehran was seeking to draw Oman into the arrangement. "There is not a country in the world that should accept that," Rubio said, identifying the Hormuz question as a major unresolved issue in ongoing Washington-Tehran talks.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told reporters Friday that Berlin intends to participate in a UK-led mission to secure the strait, while clarifying that he does not consider the operation a NATO undertaking.