DUBAI: Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said on Thursday that the leverage of closing the Strait of Hormuz should be used by his country. In his first statement since his appointment, he also stated that Tehran believes in "friendship" with its neighbors, claiming that his country "targets only American bases" in these states.
While Khamenei insisted only US bases in the region had been hit, several attacks have targeted civilian and oil-related targets in Gulf countries.
The statement was read on state television by a news anchor. Khamenei, 56, did not appear on camera, and an Israeli assessment indicates he was wounded in the war’s opening salvo.
He vowed to avenge those killed in the war, including in a strike on a school. He said Iran would “obtain compensation” from its enemy, referring to the United States. If it refuses, Iran will “take from its assets” or destroy them to the same extent, he said.
Iran’s unrelenting attacks on shipping traffic and energy infrastructure in the Arabian Gulf pushed oil back above $100 a barrel on Thursday, as American and Israeli strikes pounded the Islamic Republic with no sign of an end to the war in sight.
Iran is trying to inflict enough global economic pain to pressure the United States and Israel to halt their bombardment, which started the war on Feb. 28. Iran’s president said its attacks would continue until Iran gets security guarantees against another assault, indicating that even a ceasefire or US declaration of victory might not halt the conflict.
US President Donald Trump has meanwhile promised to “finish the job,” even though he claimed Iran is “virtually destroyed.”
Hezbollah militants meanwhile launched some 200 rockets from Lebanon at northern Israel while sirens rang out and loud booms from the interception of Iranian missiles could be heard in other areas. Israel launched another wave of attacks on Tehran and in Lebanon, where 11 people were killed.
The UN refugee agency said up to 3.2 million people in Iran have been displaced by the ongoing war. It said most have fled from Tehran and other major cities toward the north of the country or rural areas. It says at least 759,000 people have been internally displaced in Lebanon.
Iranian officials dismiss any notion of backing down
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian suggested online Thursday that for the war to end, the world would need to recognize Iran’s “legitimate rights,” pay reparations and offer guarantees against future attacks.
In addition to attacking energy infrastructure around the region, Iran has a stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway leading from the Arabian Gulf toward the Indian Ocean through which a fifth of the world’s oil is transported.
Amid speculation that the US might target Kharg Island in the Arabian Gulf, Iran’s main oil terminal, Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf threatened in a social media post that any attempt to take Iranian islands would “make the Arabian Gulf run with the blood of invaders.”
With traffic in the strait effectively stopped, the price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose another 9 percent to more than $100 a barrel, up some 38 percent over what it cost when the war started. Prices have swung back and forth in recent days, at one point surging to around $120 a barrel.
*With AFP
