IRGC Commander Ahmad Vahidi. (Twitter screenshot)
Iran denounces US plans to impose naval blockade; threatens to strike Gulf ports, take permanent control over the Strait of Hormuz, and tank the global economy.
By David Rosenberg, World Israel News
Iran responded on Monday to President Donald Trump’s threat to impose a naval blockade on Iran by closing shipping to the Islamic Republic via the Strait of Hormuz, warning that the regime will force the closure of Arab Gulf ports and inflict severe damage on the global economy.
Early Monday morning, President Trump announced that the United States will prevent ships from traveling to or from Iranian ports, beginning at 10:00 a.m. Washington time on Monday.
“The United States to Blockade Ships Entering or Exiting Iranian Ports on April 13 at 10:00 A.M. ET.,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.
A day earlier, Trump said the blockade was in response to Iran’s failure to open the Strait of Hormuz to incoming and outgoing vessels, as had been agreed upon as a condition for the two-week ceasefire that began last Wednesday morning.
On Monday morning, the Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-linked engineering firm, said that if Iranian ports are blockaded, Iran will impose its own blockade on the ports of Gulf Arab states.
“If the security of the Islamic Republic’s ports in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman is threatened, no port in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman will remain safe,” the firm said in a statement, denouncing Trump’s plans as “piracy.”
The Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters also threatened to seize permanent control of the Strait of Hormuz if the US imposes a blockade.
A senior Iranian lawmaker warned that if Trump followed through on his threat, the economies of the United States and other Western nations would be devastated.
“It would create a flood in the economy of Western countries and the Americans,” said MP Vahid Ahmadi, a member of the national security committee.
The agreement between the two descendants and Sotheby’s was arranged by Toronto-based Mondex Corporation.
Senior Israeli security officials warned it could trigger escalation and delay elections.
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