Mojtaba Khamenei backs Iran Hormuz control, vows nuclear guard
Mojtaba Khamenei used Persian Gulf Day in Iran to issue a defiant statement on iran hormuz, saying Tehran would eliminate “enemy’s abuses of the waterway” and guard its nuclear and missile programmes. The remarks came as vessel traffic in the strait remained extremely low, after a US counter-blockade on 13 April targeted oil tankers moving in or out of Iranian ports.
“Today, two months after the largest military deployment and aggression by the world’s bullies in the region, and the United States’ disgraceful defeat in its plans, a new chapter is unfolding for the Persian Gulf and the strait of Hormuz,” Khamenei said in a statement read by a state television anchor. He also said Iran would “guard its modern technological capacities – from nano to bio to nuclear and missile – as their national capital and will guard it like their maritime land and air borders.”
Shipping Through the Strait
The Strait of Hormuz normally carries about one-fifth of global oil, but traffic levels were described as extremely low, sometimes as low as three ships a day compared with 120 to 140 in normal conditions. Oil prices rose above $120 a barrel during the blockade impasse, then moved close to $125 a barrel after Trump said on Wednesday that he knew no short way out of the impasse.
Khamenei’s language framed the waterway as something Iran would actively control, rather than merely defend. He said Tehran would eliminate “enemy’s abuses of the waterway,” and he warned that “Foreigners who maliciously covet it [the strait] from thousands of kilometres away have no place there except at the bottom of its waters.”
Rezaee’s Warning
Maj Gen Mohsen Rezaee, a military adviser to the supreme leader, added his own warning on X, saying, “The siege scenario will fail and Iran will never lose the strait of Hormuz.” His intervention reinforced the same message from a second named figure inside Iran’s security establishment, while the shipping data showed the blockade had already reduced traffic to a fraction of normal levels.
Khamenei had not been seen on recording or in a visual sighting since he was appointed in early March. Reports said he was severely injured in the bombing that killed his 86-year-old father and predecessor on 28 February, placing this statement at the center of Iran’s current messaging over the strait, its nuclear programme, and its missile programme. The next pressure point is the shipping route itself: tanker movement, oil prices, and any further move by the United States or Iran around the waterway.
