Mohsen Rezaei: We will declare a “prohibited zone” outside the Strait of Hormuz

Mohsen Rezaei: We will declare a “prohibited zone” outside the Strait of Hormuz

🔸Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of the Islamic Republic, announced on Sunday evening, 15 Shahrivar, that Tehran will declare a “prohibited zone” outside the Strait of Hormuz in the coming days.

🔸In an interview with Iran’s government television, he said that this zone starts from the “line of the siege” of American forces and extends to “areas of the Persian Gulf.”

🔸Rezaei added that ships that enter this new zone will be placed on the “sanctions list” of the Islamic Republic.

🔸Earlier, some members of the Iranian parliament said that a plan was being considered in the National Security Commission under which vessels of countries that join the sanctions against Iran would not be allowed to transit the Strait of Hormuz.

🔸This comes as U.S. officials, including Donald Trump, the president of the United States, have for a long time claimed that the Strait of Hormuz is open and that U.S. naval forces have control over it.

🔸In his interview, Mohsen Rezaei called Trump’s remarks a “major lie” and claimed that the United States is trying to smuggle, on a daily basis, five to six vessels through the southern part of the Strait of Hormuz, adding: “Usually, these ships are also hit.”

🔸Hours earlier, Chris Wright, U.S. Secretary of Energy, announced that the United States has helped with the resumption of oil tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and that, taking into account pipeline lines that bypass the Strait’s route, the flow of oil transfer from the Middle East has now reached more than two-thirds of the level before the conflict with Iran.