Spokesman: Security of Hormuz Strait “Iran’s Top Priority”

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast stressed the vital importance of maintaining security in the Persian Gulf region, cautioning that foreign meddling in the region will endanger security of global energy supply.

“The security of the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz is among the main priorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran and this security should be durable so that all counties of the region can protect and defend their interests and those of the region,” Mehman-Parast said at a weekly press conference on Tuesday.

“Any factor impairing this security will threaten the national interests of the regional states,” he stated.

He said Iran enjoys military and defensive deterrence capability making it possible for the country to establish security in the region, and ensured that the country’s “deterrence capability is fully efficient when it comes to defending regional security”.

He further noted that those countries which are seeking to impair security of energy supply to disturb balance in the global energy market are “the real threat to the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz”.

The remarks by Mehman-Parast came days after Chief of Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces Major General Hassan Firouzabadi announced that the country has drawn a plan for closing the world oil lifeline, the Strait of Hormuz, in the Persian Gulf, but meantime stressed that Iranian forces will not shut the waterway before they receive the needed permission from the Supreme Leader.

“We have a plan for closing the Strait of Hormuz, but executing the plan needs the permission of the Supreme Leader,” Firouzabadi told reporters on the sidelines of an annual gathering of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) commanders in Tehran on Sunday.

“The Armed Forces have their own plans for every subject, but the decision to close the Strait of Hormuz lie on the Commander-in-Chief (The Leader of Islamic Ummah and Oppressed People Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei), who also receives consultations from the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC),” he added.

The general dismissed the western states’ claims that Iran is not able to block the Strait of Hormuz, and said, “They allege that we are bluffing in a bid to appease themselves.”

“Of course, we don’t want to block the Strait of Hormuz, but we have a plan for closing it, which is a clever and wise one,” Firouzabadi said.

Iran has threatened to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz at the entrance to the oil-rich Persian Gulf if its nuclear program is targeted by air strikes that Israel and the United States reserve as an option.

An estimated 40 percent of the world’s oil supply passes through the waterway.