{"id":209283,"date":"2026-04-30T19:16:46","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T19:16:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/iran-supreme-leader-issues-defiant-statement-on-strait-of-hormuz-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T19:16:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T19:16:46","slug":"iran-supreme-leader-issues-defiant-statement-on-strait-of-hormuz-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/iran-supreme-leader-issues-defiant-statement-on-strait-of-hormuz-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran supreme leader issues defiant statement on strait of Hormuz – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mojtaba Khamenei says Tehran will eliminate \u2018enemy\u2019s abuses of the waterway\u2019 and guard its nuclear and missile programmes
US politics live \u2013 latest updates<\/a>
Iran\u2019s supreme leader has broken his recent silence with a defiant statement hailing Iran\u2019s control over shipping in the strait of Hormuz and vowing to guard the country\u2019s nuclear and missile programmes.
\u201cToday, two months after the largest military deployment and aggression by the world\u2019s bullies in the region, and the United States\u2019 disgraceful defeat in its plans, a new chapter is unfolding for the Persian Gulf and the strait of Hormuz,\u201d Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement read by a state television anchor.
The statement said Tehran would secure the Gulf region and eliminate what he described as \u201cthe enemy\u2019s abuses of the waterway\u201d, and that \u201cnew management of the strait will bring comfort and progress for the benefit of all the nations of the region and economic blessings will bring joy to the hearts of the people\u201d.
Iran has sought to extract a price for being attacked by exerting control over the strait, the narrow waterway through which about one-fifth of global oil typically transits.
Speaking to mark Persian Gulf Day in Iran, Khamenei also vowed that Iran would \u201cguard its modern technological capacities \u2013 from nano to bio to nuclear and missile \u2013 as their national capital and will guard it like their maritime land and air borders\u201d.
No recording or visual sighting of Khamenei has been broadcast since he was appointed supreme leader in early March. Reports have suggested that he was severely injured in the bombing that killed his 86-year-old father and predecessor on 28 February. He is said to be in hospital being treated for injuries.
His new statement suggests Iran is determined to implement a new fees regime in the strait that it will present as benefiting the entire region as a belated assertion of regional sovereignty.
Since 13 April the US has mounted a counter-blockade designed to stop oil tankers moving in or out of Iranian ports, seizing up the Iranian oil industry.
With Pakistan-mediated talks at an impasse, there is little sign of either blockade being lifted, pushing the oil price above $120 a barrel. Vessel traffic levels are still extremely low, sometimes as low as three ships a day compared with 120\u2013140 in normal conditions.
\u201cForeigners who maliciously covet it [the strait] from thousands of kilometres away have no place there except at the bottom of its waters,\u201d Khamenei\u2019s statement said.
The strait\u2019s closure has put pressure on Trump, as oil and petrol prices have rocketed before crucial midterm elections, as well as on his Gulf allies, which use the waterway to export their oil and gas.
Trump\u2019s admission on Wednesday that he knew no short way out of the impasse pushed oil prices close to $125 a barrel<\/a> \u2013 as high as during the first weeks of Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The Axios news website reported that the US military was still feeding Trump options to resume strikes.
Maj Gen Mohsen Rezaee, the military adviser to the supreme leader, wrote on his X account: \u201cThe siege scenario will fail and Iran will never lose the strait of Hormuz. History will record that the Iranian nation sank the superpower of America in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of \u200b\u200bOman. Both the field and diplomacy are moving forward with the coordination of the leader of the revolution and the support of the people.\u201d
The world considers the strait an international waterway, open to all without paying tolls, and Gulf Arab nations, chief among them the United Arab Emirates, have decried Iran\u2019s control of the strait as akin to piracy.
Iran has proposed that talks with the US on its nuclear programme be parked while both sides agree terms for allowing ships to resume passage along the strait. In Iran the foreign ministry has urged its parliament to recognise that Iran\u2019s plans being hatched in conjunction with Oman do not require fresh Iranian legislation. It is also urging that Iran avoid terms such as \u201ctolls\u201d, and instead assert its pre-existing right to charge fees for services rendered.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and the UK foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, held talks in Washington on Wednesday about the strait. An email sent by the state department to embassies reported by the Wall Street Journal suggested the US was trying to become involved in largely European-led plans for the oversight of the strait once the conflict ends.
The US is offering to coordinate diplomacy and communications between countries using the strait by reviving and broadening a 12 nation International Maritime Security Construct, a pre-existing naval operation set up in after threats to shipping by the Iranian navy.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mojtaba Khamenei says Tehran will eliminate \u2018enemy\u2019s abuses of the waterway\u2019 and guard its nuclear and missile programmesUS politics live \u2013 latest updatesIran\u2019s supreme leader has broken his recent silence with a defiant statement hailing Iran\u2019s control over shipping in the strait of Hormuz and vowing to guard the country\u2019s nuclear and missile programmes.\u201cToday, two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":209284,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-209283","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}