ShareTEHRAN: Iran's top general warned yesterday Tehran could close the strategic Strait of Hormuz shipping route if it faces more "hostility", news agency ISNA said, as the US tightens up sanctions. "We are not after closing the Strait of Hormuz but if the hostility of enemies increase, we will be able to do so," armed forces chief of staff Mohammad Bagheri told semi-official ISNA. "Also if our oil does not go through the strait, other countries' oil will certainly not cross the strait, too," he added.
The statement came after Washington said last Monday it would start imposing sanctions on countries such as India, China and Turkey that buy Iranian oil. Eight countries were initially given six-month reprieves after the United States reimposed sanctions on Iran in November, following President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from a 2015 nuclear accord. Iranian officials have repeatedly warned the Islamic republic could shut down the strait, a vital shipping lane for international oil supplies, should it find its national interests or security threatened.
"We believe Iran will continue to sell its oil … (and) use the Strait of Hormuz. But if the United States takes the crazy measure of trying to prevent us from doing that, then it should be prepared for the consequences," foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Wednesday. "It is in our vital national security interest to keep the Persian Gulf open, to keep the Strait of Hormuz open. We have done that in the past and we will continue to do that in the future," he added.
Meanwhile, an Iranian Revolutionary Guards' drone successfully carried out a surveillance flight over an American aircraft carrier in the Gulf, Tasnim news agency claimed in a report yesterday on its website. A video published by the agency, which could not be immediately verified, shows a light blue colored drone with the name "Ababil III" written on the wings in Farsi and Latin script.
It is seen taking off from a desert base near the sea, as the soundtrack of an action movie plays in the background, and flies over first an escort ship and then an aircraft carrier with fighter planes parked on the deck. "The naval force of Sepah (the Guards' Farsi name) is aware of all the movements of American terrorist forces in the region and the Persian Gulf and closely monitors them," Tasnim wrote. Tasnim did not name the aircraft carrier or say when the video was shot.
In the Holy Quran, ababil refers to a type of miraculous birds that protected the holy city of Makkah in Saudi Arabia against an invader king's elephant army by dropping stones on them. The Tasnim report comes nearly three weeks after the United States branded the Guards as a "foreign terrorist organization" and added it to a blacklist. Iran swiftly retaliated by declaring US troops "terrorists". The Guards is an ideological military force that works in parallel to the regular army. It naval arm is charged with the defense and the security of the Gulf, including the strategic Strait of Hormuz. - AFP
