Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, has announced that the Strait of Hormuz is completely closed to regular commercial shipping.
Sea-news.az reports from Press TV, Rezaei stated that Iranian military forces are actively targeting and firing upon U.S. vessels attempting to navigate through the strategic waterway. However, explaining why these vessels are reportedly not being completely destroyed or sunk, he claimed that the decision was made to protect the region’s ecological safety.
“Iran has decided not to sink American vessels engaged in smuggling because they carry oil, and doing so would cause severe environmental damage to the region,” Rezaei noted.
This high-stakes announcement escalates rhetoric surrounding the crucial transit corridor, directly conflicting with ongoing international security operations and coming in the wake of intensive underground mine-clearing missions conducted by the U.S. Navy. Independent verifications of a total physical closure of the strait remain limited as military tensions continue to peak across the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.
