The Iranian Armed Forces on Monday called the United States’ announcement on a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz “piracy” after the failure of talks held over the weekend in Pakistan to try to reach a peace agreement and have stressed that security in the region’s ports “is for everyone, or for no one.”
The spokesman for the Jatam al Anbiya command – the unified combat command of the Iranian Armed Forces -, Ebrahim Zolfaqari, has stressed that “the imposition by the criminal United States of restrictions on the movement of ships in international waters is an illegal act that amounts to piracy.”
“The Iranian Armed Forces declare clearly and firmly that the security of ports in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman is for everyone, or for no one,” he said, while warning that “if the security of Iran’s ports […] is threatened, no port in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman will be safe.
Thus, he stressed that “the Iranian Armed Forces consider it a natural and legal duty to defend the legal rights of the country” and added that “exercising Iran’s sovereignty over the country’s territorial waters is a natural right of the Iranian nation,” as reported by the Iranian public television channel, IRIB.
“Ships linked to the enemy will not have the right to pass”
Zolfaqari has stressed that “ships linked to the enemy do not have and will not have the right to pass through the Strait of Hormuz”, while “the rest will continue to receive permission to do so, something always subject to the regulations of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
“Given the continued threats from the enemy against the Iranian nation and the country’s national security, even after the end of the war, the Islamic Republic of Iran will decisively implement a permanent mechanism to control the Strait of Hormuz,” he reiterated.
Just a few hours earlier, Iran’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araqchi, had lamented that, despite the fact that Tehran had attended its negotiations with the United States in Pakistan in “good faith” in order to “end the war,” his country had found itself in them with “changes in the rules of the game” and “a blockade” like the one announced just a few hours earlier by Washington against all ships that “enter or leave Iranian ports.”
US President Donald Trump announced after Washington and Tehran ended their peace talks in Islamabad without an agreement, that the US Navy will impose a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz starting this Monday and threatened to intercept “in international waters” any ship that has paid Iran to cross this strategic passage.
This blockade, as specified by the Central Command of the US Armed Forces (CENTCOM), will be applied “impartially” against ships “of all nations entering or leaving Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all ports in the Arabian Gulf – in reference to the Persian Gulf – and the Gulf of Oman.”
The talks took place in Islamabad days after the United States and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire – called into question by Israel’s attacks on Lebanon – and aimed at a final agreement to end the offensive launched on February 28 by US and Israeli forces against Iranian territory.
