Reuters. Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said in a published written message on Thursday (April 30), that a new chapter for the Gulf and Strait of Hormuz has been taking shape since the Iran war with the United States and Israel broke out on February 28.
Khamenei said that Tehran would secure the Gulf region and eliminate what he described as "the enemy's abuses of the waterway."
The Supreme Leader added that new management of the Strait of Hormuz would bring calm, progress and economic benefits to all Gulf nations.
In the statement read out on state TV, a newsreader quoted Khamenei as saying, "foreign actors who from thousands of kilometres away interfere with greed and sabotage have no place there, except at the bottom of its waters."
Two months into the war that started with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran, the vital sea channel remains closed, choking off 20% of the world's supplies of oil and gas. That has sent global energy prices surging and heightened concerns about the risks of an economic downturn.
Iran has pledged to continue disrupting traffic through the Strait as long as it is threatened, which may mean more Middle East oil supply disruptions from a conflict that has killed thousands.
The U.S. is pushing for other countries to form an international coalition to restore freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, according to a State Department cable seen by Reuters, as oil prices surged to their highest in more than four years on fears of longer-term disruptions to global fuel supplies.
