Iran said on Thursday it would respond with “long and painful strikes” on US positions if Washington renewed attacks and restated its claim to the Strait of Hormuz, complicating US plans for a coalition to reopen the waterway.
Aerospace Force Commander Majid Mousavi was quoted by Iran’s official media SNN as saying: “We’ve seen what happened to your regional bases, we will see the same thing happen to your warships.”
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Mousavi was responding to a statements by the US military’s CENTCOM commander claiming the success of the US blockade against Iran, according to SNN.
The aerospace commander’s statement followed a message by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei assuring that Iran “the enemies’ abuses of the waterway” under new management of the strait, indicating that Tehran intended to maintain its hold over it.
Khamenei said in a written message to Iranians that Tehran would eliminate “the enemies’ abuses of the waterway” under new management of the strait, indicating that Tehran intended to maintain its hold over it.
“Foreigners who come from thousands of kilometers away … have no place there except at the bottom of its waters,” he said.
Impassé
Two months into the US-Israeli war with Iran, the vital Strait of Hormuz remains closed, choking off 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas supplies. That has sent global energy prices surging and heightened concerns about the risks of an economic downturn.
Efforts to resolve the conflict have hit an impasse, with a ceasefire in place since April 8 but Iran still blocking the strait in response to a US naval blockade of Iran’s oil exports, Tehran’s economic lifeline.
US President Donald Trump was scheduled to receive a briefing on Thursday on plans for a series of fresh military strikes on Iran to compel it to negotiate an end to the conflict, a US official told Reuters.
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Such options have long been part of US planning but reports of the proposed briefing, first issued by news site Axios late on Wednesday, initially spurred big gains in oil prices, with the benchmark Brent crude contract hitting more than $126 a barrel at one point. It later slipped back to around $114.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Thursday evening that it was not reasonable to expect quick results from US talks, according to the official IRNA news agency.
“Expecting to reach a result in a short time, regardless of who the mediator is, in my opinion, is not very realistic,” he was quoted as saying.
Air defense activity was heard in some areas of Iran’s capital Tehran late on Thursday, Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency reported, and the Tasnim news agency said air defenses were engaging small drones and unmanned surveillance aerial vehicles.
On Thursday, the UAE said it had banned its citizens from traveling to Iran, Lebanon and Iraq, and urged those currently in those countries to leave immediately and return home, citing regional developments.
Trump reiterated to reporters on Thursday that Iran would not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon and that the price of gasoline — a key concern for his Republican Party ahead of the November midterm elections — would “drop like a rock” as soon as the war ended.
While repeating allegations of serious rights violations by Iran, Trump said he was “OK” with it playing in the upcoming soccer World Cup in the United States, after FIFA president Gianni Infantino insisted the country would take part.
Prolonged disruption
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that if the disruption caused by the closure dragged on through mid-year, global growth would fall, inflation would rise and tens of millions more people would be pushed into poverty and extreme hunger.
“The longer this vital artery is choked, the harder it will be to reverse the damage,” he told reporters in New York.
Trump faces a formal US deadline on Friday to end the war or make the case to Congress for extending it. Analysts and congressional aides said they expect him either to notify Congress that he plans a 30-day extension or simply to disregard the deadline.
Trump reiterated on Thursday that Iran’s economy was “a disaster,” but analysts said that if he expects Iran to blink first in a game of economic chicken, he may be waiting a while.
The conflict has aggravated Iran’s dire economic problems, risking calamity after the war, but it looks able to survive a standoff in the Gulf for now, despite a US blockade that has cut off energy exports.
