Abolfazl Shekarchi, senior spokesperson of the Islamic Republic’s armed forces, described Brett Cooper, the commander of CENTCOM, and his remarks about support for oil tankers to pass more than one billion barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz as “false, deflecting, and ridiculous.”

Shekarchi said these remarks are “a failed psychological operation to boost the morale of the exhausted and worn-down U.S. army forces in the region,” rather than being a fact, and cannot change the reality of that country’s army’s departure from the region.

The senior spokesperson of the Islamic Republic’s armed forces also added that initiative in the Strait of Hormuz remains in the hands of the Islamic Republic’s armed forces.