{"id":90971,"date":"2026-04-30T12:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T12:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/90971\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T12:17:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T12:17:11","slug":"irans-leader-vows-to-protect-nuclear-and-missile-capabilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/90971\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran’s leader vows to protect nuclear and missile capabilities"},"content":{"rendered":"

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 Iran\u2019s supreme leader said Thursday that the Islamic Republic will protect its \u201cnuclear and missile capabilities\u201d as a national asset, likely seeking to draw a hard line as U.S. President Donald Trump seeks a wider deal<\/a> to cement the shaky ceasefire now holding in the war. <\/p>\n

Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, speaking in a written statement read by a state television anchor as he has since taking over as Iran\u2019s supreme leader, struck a defiant tone, insisting the only place Americans belonged in the Persian Gulf is \u201cat the bottom of its waters\u201d and that a \u201cnew chapter\u201d was being written in the region\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

However, his remarks come as Iran\u2019s oil industry has begun to be squeezed by a U.S. Navy blockade halting its oil tankers from getting out to sea. Meanwhile, benchmark Brent crude for June delivery reached as much as $126 a barrel<\/a> in trading on Thursday as Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all crude oil and natural gas traded passes. <\/p>\n

All this is putting additional pressure on the world\u2019s economy as Trump likely weighs how to respond. <\/p>\n

\u201cBy God\u2019s help and power, the bright future of the Persian Gulf region will be a future without America, one serving the progress, comfort and prosperity of its people,\u201d Khamenei said. He reportedly was wounded in the Feb. 28 attack that killed his father, the 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe and our neighbors across the waters of the Persian Gulf and the (Gulf) of Oman share a common destiny. Foreigners who come from thousands of kilometers away to act with greed and malice there have no place in it \u2014 except at the bottom of its waters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ceasefire shaken as strait choked off<\/p>\n

With a fragile ceasefire<\/a> in place, the U.S. and Iran are locked in a standoff over the strait. The U.S blockade<\/a> is designed to prevent Iran from selling its oil, depriving it of crucial revenue while also potentially creating a situation where Tehran has to shut off production because it has nowhere to store oil.<\/p>\n

The strait\u2019s closure<\/a>, meanwhile, has put pressure on Trump, as oil and gasoline prices have skyrocketed ahead of crucial midterm elections, and it has pressured his Gulf allies, which use the waterway to export their oil and gas.<\/p>\n

A recent Iranian proposal would push negotiations on the country\u2019s nuclear program<\/a> to a later date. Trump said one of the major reasons he went to war was to deny Iran the ability to develop nuclear weapons. Iran long has maintained its program is peaceful, though it enriched uranium at near-weapons-grade levels of 60%. <\/p>\n

Speaking to mark Persian Gulf Day in Iran, Khamenei\u2019s remarks signaled that nuclear issues and Iran\u2019s ballistic missile program wouldn\u2019t be traded away. <\/p>\n

\u201cNinety million proud and honorable Iranians inside and outside the country regard all of Iran\u2019s identity-based, spiritual, human, scientific, industrial and technological capacities \u2014 from nanotechnology and biotechnology to nuclear and missile capabilities \u2014 as national assets, and will protect them just as they protect the country\u2019s waters, land and airspace,\u201d Khamenei said.<\/p>\n

He referred to America as the \u201cGreat Satan,\u201d a long hurled insult by Iranian leaders toward the U.S. since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. <\/p>\n

Khamenei signals strait will remain shut<\/p>\n

In his remarks, Khamenei seemed to signal Iran would maintain its control over the waterway, which sits in the territorial waters of Iran and Oman. Iran had been charging some ships reportedly $2 million apiece to travel through the strait. <\/p>\n

He said that Iran\u2019s control of the Strait of Hormuz will make the Gulf more secure, and that Tehran\u2019s \u201clegal rules and new management\u201d of the strait will benefit all the region\u2019s nations.<\/p>\n

However, the world considered the strait an international waterway, open to all without paying tolls. Gulf Arab nations, chief among them the United Arab Emirates, have decried Iran\u2019s control of the strait as akin to piracy. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 Iran\u2019s supreme leader said Thursday that the Islamic Republic will protect its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[327,38,777,197,34,61,196,49,768,2289,2222,81,463,1527,771,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-90971","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran","8":"tag-ali-khamenei","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-energy-industry","11":"tag-general-news","12":"tag-iran","13":"tag-iran-government","14":"tag-iran-war","15":"tag-middle-east","16":"tag-military-and-defense","17":"tag-mojtaba-khamenei","18":"tag-oil-and-gas-industry","19":"tag-politics","20":"tag-religion","21":"tag-u-s-navy","22":"tag-washington-news","23":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116493618058927324","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90971","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=90971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}