TEHRAN: Iran would find it "really easy" to close the world's most important oil transit channel, the Strait of Hormuz at the Gulf's entrance, but would not do so right now, Iran's navy chief said yesterday. "Shutting the strait for Iran's armed forces is really easy - or as we say in Iran) easier than drinking a glass of water," Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said in an interview with Iran's Press TV. "But today, we don't need (to shut) the strait because we have the Sea of Oman under control, and can contro
l the transit," he said.
The United States warned Iran against any attempt to disrupt shipping. "Anyone who threatens to disrupt freedom of navigation in an international strait is clearly outside the community of nations; any disruption will not be tolerated," the Bahrain-based US Fifth Fleet said in an email. A spokesperson for the fleet said that it "maintains a robust presence in the region to deter or counter destabilising activities", without providing further details. "Interference with the transit... of vessels through the
Strait of Hormuz will not be tolerated," added Pentagon press secretary George Little.
Sayyari was speaking a day after Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi threatened to close the strait if the West imposed more sanctions on Iran, and as its navy held war games in international waters to the east of the channel. World prices briefly climbed after Rahimi warned on Tuesday that "not a drop of oil will pass through the Strait of Hormuz" if the West broadened sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. "The enemies will only drop their plots when we put them back in their place," the offici
al news agency IRNA quoted Rahimi as saying
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