Mojtaba threatens painful response if US resumes attacks

WASHINGTON/DUBAI: Iran said on Thursday it would respond with “long and painful strikes” on US positions if Washington renewed attacks, and also reasserted its control over the Strait of Hormuz, complicating US plans for a coalition to reopen the waterway.

Two months into the US-Israeli war with Iran, the vital sea channel remains closed, choking off 20% 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, the country’s economic lifeline.

US President Donald Trump is slated 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.

READ MORE: Trump eyeing Iran blockade lasting ‘months if needed’: White House official

Such options have long been part of US planning but the proposed briefing, first reported by news site Axios late on Wednesday, 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 $113 a barrel.

Any US attack on Iran, even if limited, will usher in “long and painful strikes” on US regional positions, a senior Revolutionary Guards official said.

“We’ve seen what happened to your regional bases, we will see the same thing happen to your warships,” Aerospace Force Commander Majid Mousavi was quoted by Iranian media as saying.

Iran aims to maintain its hold over Strait

Supreme Leader Mojtaba 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 the country intended to maintain its hold over it. “Foreigners who come from thousands of kilometres away…have no place there except at the bottom of its waters,” he said.

Iran’s parliament speaker and foreign minister also alluded to Iranian control over the strait.

Brent prices have doubled since the war began on February 28, driving inflation and sending pump prices to politically painful levels worldwide.

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.

As well as blocking almost all but its own shipping through the strait, Iran launched drones and missiles at Israel and US bases, infrastructure and US-linked companies in Gulf states.

Amazon said restoring normal operations for its cloud regions in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates could take months after damage last month from the conflict, which has killed thousands in Iran and across the Middle East.