File photo of a speedboat belonging to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)'s Navy. Photo: PressTV.
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)’s Navy says Iranian forces exercise “complete and decisive” control over the strategic Strait of Hormuz, rejecting statements by US officials that the waterway remains open.
“The control exercised by the Islamic Republic’s forces over the strategic Strait of Hormuz is complete and decisive,” the IRGC Navy said in a statement on Friday.
It described US officials’ claims that the Strait of Hormuz is open as “an outright lie,” saying they were intended “solely to control oil prices and cover up their own defeats.”
The strait is closed to vessels seeking to transit without prior coordination with the Islamic Republic, the statement added.
The IRGC Navy said the situation would remain in place until the end of the United States’ “terrorist army’s aggression” against the Islamic Republic and until the relevant obligations had been fulfilled.
Iran closed the chokepoint following the launch of the latest bout of unprovoked American-Israeli aggression against the country on February 28.
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The Islamic Republic and the United States agreed on a 60-day reopening period as part of a Pakistan-mediated memorandum of understanding in June, but American violations forced Tehran to reestablish the closure.
Tehran has conditioned reopening of the waterway on realization of a number of prerequisites, including cessation of American interference in regional maritime traffic.
On Tuesday, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs said the demands include the complete lifting of the US’s illegal economic blockade against the Islamic Republic, durable cessation of aggression on all fronts, including Lebanon, and clarification of the situation concerning the blockade of Yemen.
Gharibabadi attributed the enhanced position of the strait in Iran’s view to the developments that took place following the launch of the unprovoked American-Israeli aggression. “Following the 40-day war, the Strait of Hormuz has become a matter of Iran’s national security,” he said.
The official was apparently referring to how Iran’s adversaries and their allies would use the waterway to meet their military and economic needs at the same time as they were targeting the Islamic Republic.
(PressTV)
