Iran dismissed claims that the Strait of Hormuz has been indefinitely closed amid its escalating conflict in West Asia with the United States and Israel, saying there is currently\u00a0no intention to shut the critical maritime passage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have not yet closed the Strait of Hormuz. If we are going to close it, we are going to announce it\u2026 It has not been closed by us. We have no intention to do it until further notice,\u201d Iran\u2019s Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed\u00a0Khatibzadeh\u00a0said on March 6.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Strait of Hormuz \u2014 a narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf with the Arabian Sea \u2014 is one of the world\u2019s most important energy corridors, carrying a significant share of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Khatibzadeh\u2019s\u00a0remarks come a day after Iran\u2019s powerful military arm, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said that passage through the strait would remain under the control of the Islamic Republic during wartime. The group also claimed that a US tanker had been struck in the northern Gulf.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a statement carried by Iranian state media, the Guards said that \u201cin time of war, passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be under the control of the Islamic Republic.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Speaking at the Raisina Dialogue 2026 in New Delhi,\u00a0Khatibzadeh\u00a0accused Washington and Tel Aviv of launching aggression against Iran based on \u201cflat lies\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy country is under attack based on flat lies that Iran was imposing a threat,\u201d he said, adding that the reasons cited by the United States for attacking Iran change depending on the audience.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He alleged that geopolitical ambitions and the \u201cdelusion of a Greater Israel\u201d were behind the conflict.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAmerica has decided to put an end to the existence of Iran. The Israelis have been promising this for many decades due to their delusion about Greater Israel. We are fighting a heroic, nationalistic war to push back those aggressors,\u201d he said, adding that Iran would\u00a0seek\u00a0to end American military presence in the Persian Gulf.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Khatibzadeh\u00a0also condemned the killing of Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei during joint US-Israeli strikes, calling the targeting of a head of state unprecedented.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShould a head of state be targeted when there are problems between countries? This is unprecedented. If this becomes the new norm, it will be\u00a0very dangerous,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Iranian diplomat further criticised the United States over the attack on the Iranian warship IRIS Dena, which Tehran says was struck in international waters while\u00a0participating\u00a0in a naval exercise as a guest of the Indian Navy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is\u00a0a very sad, very unfortunate incident. That vessel was by invitation of our Indian friends, attending an international exercise. It was ceremonial. It was unloaded. It was unarmed,\u201d\u00a0Khatibzadeh\u00a0said, adding that several Iranian sailors had been killed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Earlier, Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said the frigate had been hit without warning\u00a0roughly 2,000\u00a0miles from Iran\u2019s shores.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe US has perpetrated an atrocity at sea\u2026 Frigate Dena, a guest of India\u2019s Navy carrying almost 130 sailors, was struck in international waters without warning.\u00a0Mark my words: the US will come to bitterly regret the precedent it has set,\u201d Araghchi wrote in a post on X (formally twitter).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iran dismissed claims that the Strait of Hormuz has been indefinitely closed amid its escalating conflict in West…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[4121,102,4114,4115,4119,4118,4120,4116,101,4117],"class_list":{"0":"post-6477","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-strait-of-hormuz","8":"tag-abbas-araghchi-statement","9":"tag-hormuz","10":"tag-iran-strait-of-hormuz","11":"tag-iran-us-israel-conflict","12":"tag-iran-us-naval-tensions","13":"tag-iris-dena-attack","14":"tag-persian-gulf-shipping-crisis","15":"tag-saeed-khatibzadeh-raisina-dialogue","16":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","17":"tag-strait-of-hormuz-oil-route"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116182017843807940","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}