“No vessel will be permitted to transit the strait.” That was the line in a statement from the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Navy on Saturday, announcing that the Strait of Hormuz is closed “until further notice.”
The IRGC Navy, as reported by Iran’s Press TV, said the strait will stay shut until the United States ends its intervention in the region. It described the step as taken “in light of the security situation resulting from the unlawful intervention of foreign powers.”
Warning to Washington
The statement also carried a threat. If what it called the aggressor enemy uses the closure as a pretext for another attack on Iran, the IRGC Navy said, “it will be met with a forceful response, and additional enemy bases in the region will be targeted.” Responsibility for any consequences, it added, would rest with the United States, Israel and the countries that host military facilities used against Iran.
Earlier, the IRGC Navy said it had been forced to fire a warning shot at a vessel after several ships ignored its instructions on passage through the strait. The force said the ship in question had switched off its onboard systems, which it called a threat to maritime safety.
The Guards also pointed back to an earlier warning. Foreign interference and an unlawful designation of shipping routes in the strait, they had said, would draw a decisive response and disrupt the growing volume of maritime traffic there.
The timeline Press TV gives
According to Press TV, Iran closed the chokepoint to its enemies and their allies after February 28, when the United States and Israel began what the outlet calls a new bout of aggression against Iran. Iran applied far stricter controls once President Donald Trump announced that a naval blockade of Iranian vessels and ports would continue despite a ceasefire he declared on April 7.
In May, Iran launched a mechanism of its own for governing traffic through the strait. It warned vessels not to refuse to coordinate their transits with Iranian authorities and not to use routes outside the supervisory management zone Tehran defined. In June, Iran and the United States reached an understanding meant to end the cycle. Press TV says Washington then claimed to have lifted the blockade but kept up its military interference in the waterway.
Commander’s remarks
Speaking days earlier at a conference at Islamic Azad University’s Bandar Abbas branch, IRGC Political Deputy Brigadier General Yadollah Javani called the Persian Gulf “a great divine blessing for the peoples of the region.” He said Portugal, Britain and, more recently, the United States had tried to dominate the waterway through deployments and bases in Gulf states.
Javani argued that Iran holds an important position because of its long Persian Gulf coastline, its control over the approaches to the strait and its three islands. “This shows that the circumstances in the region have changed compared with the past,” he said, adding that some regional countries are now questioning the future of the US presence in West Asia.
Press TV also reports that the US launched air raids on Iran in July and imposed a naval blockade in violation of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding signed on June 17. In response, it says, Iranian forces struck American targets across West Asia and declared the strait closed to all traffic. The US account of these events was not part of the Press TV reports.
Sources
- IRGC Navy: Strait of Hormuz closed until US ends regional intervention
- Regional power shift underway, Hormuz emerging key strategic front: IRGC commander
