Extremists in Iran Want to Block the Straits of Hormuz

Hossein Shariatmadari, the ayatollah-Khamenei-appointed-editor of Kayhan newspaper posted a comment on Saturday in which he talks of the impossibility of a nuclear deal and also makes a proposal for resolving the sanctions hovering over Iran’s head.

He writes, “If we too look at the talks as a battle, rather than giving concessions to win their trust – which we know is futile – we should aim at their Achilles heel and utilize the many tools that we have to strike at the United States and its allies.” He then gives an example and argues, “There is a provision in international law titled Retaliation which gives every country the right act in kind if its rights have been violated. In response to the resolution passed by the European Union – which is not an internationally binding document - the Islamic republic of Iran can block the Straits of Hormuz to oil tankers carrying oil to European countries that have sanctioned Iran. European countries have the right to buy or not buy Iranian oil but the EU resolution says that this measure is to confront the Islamic republic of Iran. So using the 1958 Geneva Convention and the 1982 Jamaica Convention which defines the international legal framework for international waterways and the rights of passage, Iran can ban the passage of oil tankers or ships that carry goods to European countries that have imposed sanctions on Iran.”

President Hassan Rouhani’s cultural advisor mockingly responded by writing back, “I want to ask him how he thinks European buyers and Persian Gulf oil exporters will react if Iran, on his orders, closes the straits. And then what would be Iran’s response to that. Enlightenment in future comments would help.”

This is of course not the first time that Iranian authorities and its military commanders have threatened to close the Straits. When oil sanctions were first imposed on Iran about three years ago, Ali Akbar Velayati had told Press Trust TV – Iran’s government television channel – “We do not need any countries’ kindness, including the West to sell our oil. They know that if Iran’s oil does not flow in the market the price of oil will most certainly go up.” He then threatened, “Tehran will not allow others to sell their oil while Iran is denied this.” In those days, president Ahmadinejad’s first deputy Mohammad Reza Rahimi expressly threatened that no oil would flow through the Straits of Hormuz if Iran’s oil was sanctioned.”

Then a group of Majlis deputies spoke of closing the Straits. MP Javad Karimi Ghodoosi said, “On the basis of the 1958 Geneva Convention and the 1982 Jamaica Convention Iran has the right to prevent the passage of oil to countries that have sanctioned Iranian oil.”

The secretary of the national security committee of the Majlis also echoed these words. Writing on the subject in Raja news, he said closing the Straits did not mean sinking a single ship in the waterway and added that the Straits were closed in the past, between 1986 and 1988, and more than 300 commercial ships affiliated with the West and the advanced navy ship Samuel P. Roberts were “eaten up” by this. He acknowledged that in those years the US had easily sunk Iranian warships but it could not do anything against the speed boats of the Revolutionary Guards. “Today these speed boats travel three times as fast aircraft carriers which makes them invisible to the observer. Furthermore, these boats are now equipped with ultra speed medium range missiles. What can the Fifth Fleet do against them,” he concluded.

But none of the repeated threats of closing the Straits if oil sanctions were imposed on Iran materialized. Some right-wingers in Iran even ridiculed these statements when they said that Iran was impotent to even get back its five border guards from Pakistan.

Just last week the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Navy, Ali Fadavi actually spoke of the religious duty of keeping the Straits open to world trade. Speaking to al-Alem news agency run by the Islamic republic, he said, “The transfer of energy to the world from the Persian Gulf through the Straits of Hormuz has a religious duty for us.”

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