Tehran, Iran. Iran said the Strait of Hormuz was an inviolable red line and warned that it would strike infrastructure across the Gulf region if U.S. President Donald Trump followed through on a threat to attack Iranian infrastructure.
Strait warning
Iranian army spokesman Brigadier General Mohammad Akraminia said on Thursday that Iran maintained firm control over the Strait of Hormuz, which carried about one-fifth of global oil and gas shipments before the war.
“The Americans thought that by attacking some of our bases on the southern coasts of the country, they could take control of this strategic strait,” Akraminia said.
He said Iran could control the strait from any point in its territory and that its position did not depend on coastal areas or islands.
U.S. operations
The United States launched a fifth consecutive night of attacks on Wednesday and reimposed a naval blockade of Iranian ports. Washington said the measures were intended to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran closed last Saturday after a fragile truce collapsed.
Three U.S. officials told Reuters that strikes intended to force open the strait were also targeting Iranian military capabilities that Washington would seek to destroy before conducting more complex operations.
Iranian conditions
After the first strikes on Wednesday night, Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, said Iran was in an “essential and existential war with America.”
Iran’s army said it would resist and neutralize U.S. interventions in the region.
Iran’s military spokesperson said the only way to reopen the Strait of Hormuz was for the United States to comply with a 14-point memorandum of understanding signed by the two sides in June and implement Iranian regulations governing ship traffic through the strait.
