Oil prices hit a four-year high, then fell back slightly before Mojtaba Khamenei issued a written statement read on state television declaring that Iran was now in the driver’s seat in the crisis.
“Today, two months after the largest military deployment and aggression by the world’s bullies in the region, and the United States’ disgraceful defeat in its plans, a new chapter is unfolding for the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz,” he said, hailing Iran’s control over shipping in the strait.
He went on to predict a bright future for the Gulf without the United States, saying those who interfere in the region from afar “have no place there except at the bottom of its waters.”
Khamenei was wounded in the initial US-Israeli strikes that killed his father, Ali Khamenei, and has not been seen in public since being named his successor as supreme leader in March.
The United States imposed a blockade on Iran’s ports two weeks ago, while Iran has maintained its stranglehold over the strategic Strait of Hormuz since the start of the Middle East war at the end of February.
Washington is now seeking to assemble an international coalition of allied states and shipping firms to coordinate safe passage through Hormuz — while maintaining its blockade of ships serving Iran, a State Department official told AFP.
Trump threatened on Thursday to withdraw US troops from Italy and Spain, extending similar warnings already made against Germany, after lambasting the NATO allies for failing to support US-Israeli operations against Iran, including in the Strait.
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