Iran threatens to block Strait of Hormuz
ROUHANI SAYS US HAS NOT THOUGHT ABOUT CONSEQUENCES OF OIL BAN
The commander of the Al Quds Force in the Revolutionary Guards yesterday said Iran will block oil shipments through the Hormuz Strait if US President Donald Trump stops Iranian oil sales.
Qassem Solaimani’s comments came as President Hassan Rouhani pledged that Iran will stand firm against US threats to cut Iranian oil sales, and said Washington had not thought about the consequences of such a move.
“The Americans say they want to reduce Iranian oil exports to zero... It shows they have not thought about its consequences,” Rouhani was quoted as saying by state news agency Irna on an official visit to Vienna.
Rouhani’s comments echoed his remarks on Tuesday when he hinted at a threat to disrupt oil shipments from neighbouring countries if Washington presses ahead with its goal of forcing all countries to stop buying Iranian oil. Rouhani did not elaborate, but Iranian officials have in the past threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping route, in retaliation for any hostile US action against Iran.
Solamani said the Guards were ready to implement such a policy. In a letter published on Irna he said: “I kiss your [Rouhani’s] hand for expressing such wise and timely comments, and I am at your service to implement any policy that serves the Islamic Republic.” Rouhani, who is now in Vienna trying to salvage the nuclear deal, said US sanctions against Iran were a “crime and aggression”, and called on European governments and others to stand up to Trump’s policies against Tehran.
“Iran will survive this round of US sanctions as it has survived them before. This US government will not stay in office forever ... But history will judge other nations based on what they do today,” Rouhani said.
Earlier in the day Rouhani told reporters that “if the remaining signatories can guarantee Iran’s benefits, Iran will remain in the nuclear deal without the United States.”
Austria’s chancellor yesterday asked visiting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani for “full clarification” of the case of a Vienna-based Iranian diplomat suspected of involvement in a plot to bomb an Iranian opposition rally in Europe.
Rouhani was in Vienna, where his country’s nuclear agreement with world powers was drawn up three years ago, to promote the deal’s survival after the withdrawal of the United States.
A day earlier, Austrian officials announced that they plan to revoke the legal immunity of Vienna-based diplomat Assadollah Assadi.
Assadi was detained Sunday near the German city of Aschaffenburg on a European arrest warrant after a couple with Iranian roots was stopped in Belgium and authorities reported finding powerful explosives in their car.
Belgian authorities accuse Assadi of being part of a plot to set off explosives at a rally of the Mujahedeen-eKhalq group in neighbouring France, and want him extradited.