Iran Adviser: Hormuz a “Ticking Atomic Bomb”

By Staff, Agencies

The US military struck two additional Iranian-flagged oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman amid its “freedom of navigation” blockade, while Tehran likened control over the Strait of Hormuz to holding an “atomic bomb.”

US Central Command said on Friday that American forces had struck two “unladen” Iranian tankers, the M/T Sea Star III and the M/T Sevda, which it claimed were attempting to “violate” the US blockade by entering an Iranian port.

Iranian armed forces responded to “the violation of the ceasefire and to American terrorism with strikes,” a military official told local media, but the US military did not report any damage.

The Strait of Hormuz has become one of Tehran’s main bargaining chips, after Iran shut the waterway early in the war, stranding hundreds of vessels and roiling energy markets.

“The Strait of Hormuz is a capability equivalent to an atomic bomb,” Mohammad Mokhber, a top adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayyed Mojtaba Khamenei, said on Friday, as cited by Press TV.

He vowed that Iran would not “forfeit the gains of this war” and said Tehran would seek to change the legal regime of the strait, through international law if possible and unilaterally if necessary.

The US has rejected Iranian ambitions as “unacceptable,” with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying on Friday that Washington will never allow Tehran to “normalize” its grip on Hormuz.

The US insists that its own naval blockade is intended to restore freedom of navigation and pressure Tehran into a deal, while Iran has accused Washington of violating the April ceasefire by targeting commercial shipping.