WASHINGTON, May 27 (Reuters) - The United States has sanctioned the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, the body Iran has set up to manage the Strait of Hormuz, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday.
• The authority is a body Iran has set up to manage requests for passage through the Strait of Hormuz.
• Tehran's grip on the strait, the conduit for about a fifth of the global oil supply, has sent the world economy into turmoil.
• It closed the strait after the U.S. and Israel launched its war against Iran on February 28.
• Anyone cooperating with the authority may be providing support to and receiving services from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and may be sanctioned, the Treasury said in a statement.
• "The Iranian military’s latest attempt to extort global maritime trade is proof that Economic Fury has left the regime desperate for cash," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
• The Persian Gulf Strait Authority published a map last week reaffirming Tehran's claims to a wide stretch of water on either side of the choke point.
(Reporting by Bhargav Acharya and Jasper Ward; Editing by Sonali Paul, Lincoln Feast and Raju Gopalakrishnan.)
