Tabnak

Tabnak is a Farsi-language Iranian news outlet aligned with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, functioning as a publishing channel for Guard Corps positions that the foreign ministry has not endorsed or has not yet announced.

Its clearest role in the war came on 17 April, when the IRGC Navy used Tabnak to publish a four-condition Hormuz transit order, non-military vessels restricted to Iran-designated routes, military vessels barred outright, prior authorisation required for every transit, 48 hours before Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced a separate civilian corridor. When Indian-flagged ships transited under Araghchi's clearance two days later, Guard Corps vessels fired on them: the Tabnak-published rulebook governed the strait in practice, not the foreign ministry's statement.

On 27 May, Tabnak again carried IRGC-favoured material outside official channels, publishing a fuller disputed draft MOU text than state television had aired, showing Hormuz sovereignty and the US military presence as unresolved bracketed clauses. The pattern across both episodes is consistent: Tabnak is where the Guard Corps puts its own doctrine on record when it diverges from the civilian government's line.