Iran's army chief vows Strait of Hormuz stays closed until rights are honored
The vow follows a week of tanker attacks, sinkings and a fire reported in the strait's eastern waters hours earlier.
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Map: The Gulf and Hormuz, marking Strait of Hormuz
Iran's army chief vowed the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until Iranians' rights are "honored", The Cradle reported. Iranian officials said the United States and Israel came away "empty-handed" from the war, with their military forces and assets damaged, according to the same report.
The statement comes after a run of attacks in the strait. An Iranian projectile sank the GFS Pride; all 21 crew were rescued, while a second vessel, the GFS Giselle, suffered hull damage in the same attack. Iran's navy separately reported a vessel ablaze east of the strait, and Iran told Hezbollah to raise its readiness as the attacks continued.
In Washington, the White House is preparing plans for the GBU-57 bunker-buster, a weapon built to destroy hardened nuclear sites, after a third tanker attack in the strait in two days, Iran's Guard Corps said. The US is also pushing other IEA members for an extra 100 million barrel oil release, arguing a diesel-focused release under discussion is not enough, and is weighing easing sanctions on shadow fleet tankers to let "legal oil" move on vessels previously under sanction.
The army chief's vow restates Tehran's standing position rather than a new demand, but it lands on top of a sharply rising count of tanker incidents, including the fire reported in the strait's eastern waters hours earlier. The claim that the US and Israel left empty-handed also cuts against Oman's framing of talks as the path to reopening the strait. The rhetoric adds nothing on timing or conditions beyond what Iranian officials have repeated for weeks, so it mainly confirms the standoff rather than shifting it. With an IRGC navy chief separately threatening US vessels directly, the continued closure language keeps crude oil's risk premium supported even without a new operational threat attached to this statement itself.