Iranian newspaper: Close Strait of Hormuz over foreign support for protests

Israel National News reports: “A hard-line newspaper close to Iran’s ruling clerics on Wednesday suggested that authorities close the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for global energy supplies, in response to alleged foreign support for the nationwide protests gripping the country, The Associated Press reported.

The suggestion came from the editor-in-chief of the hardline Kayhan newspaper, who is appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in an editorial that could be seen as a trial balloon.

‘Closing the Strait of Hormuz to Western countries’ oil tankers and commercial vessels is Iran’s legal right,’ the editor, Hossein Shariatmadari wrote, according to AP. ‘We can even seize a part of their commercial cargo as compensation for the financial damage they have done to our country.’

The Revolutionary Guard typically patrols the shallower waters of the Persian Gulf and its narrow mouth, the Strait of Hormuz, through which around one third of all oil traded by sea passes.

The narrow waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf has seen a number of tense encounters between the US and Iran over the years…”

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