Iran has warned vessels against using unauthorized routes in the Strait of Hormuz, noting that the United States is using commercial ships for military purposes.
“From the very beginning, we said that the southern route is unsafe. The United States, assuming that Iran was busy with the funeral of the Leader, took action to divert ships from the northern route to the southern route. The US must be held accountable for this, and also for the fact that it uses commercial ships within the framework of its military objectives,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday.
His remarks came a day after an oil tanker exploded in the Strait of Hormuz after it deviated from a shipping route designated by Iranian authorities.
The Iranian news outlet Defa Press reported on Sunday that the tanker struck a naval mine after deviating from the route specified by Iran for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
Noting that US President Donald Trump doesn’t attach any credibility to his signature on the Islamabad memorandum of understanding (MoU), the spokesman said, “America has acted more like a mafia gang in recent months. As long as America insists on this action, nothing special or positive will happen.”
Commenting on new UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s decision to grant the US access to its territory for anti-Iran strikes and the expected US-UK meeting on the Strait of Hormuz, Baghaei said: “We expected the new British government to act more wisely than the previous one, but unfortunately we saw that in practice it followed the same path—maybe even worse.”
The US and UK are planning to convene a high-level meeting in London next week that will focus on a potential international coalition allegedly to “protect maritime shipping” in the Strait of Hormuz.
Baghaei warned that any intervention in the issue of the Strait of Hormuz will only complicate the situation and will not help resolve the issue.
“If Britain and other parties that claim to be concerned about the situation in the Strait of Hormuz are honest, they should look to the root cause of the problem,” he said, as the Strait of Hormuz was open before February 28, and the current situation is a result of unprovoked US-Israeli aggression against the Islamic Republic.
Iran and the US signed a memorandum of understanding last month to end the cycle arising from the latest bout of unprovoked American-Israeli aggression against the Islamic Republic, which had begun on February 28.
Under the MoU, Iran agreed to allow fee-free maritime transit through the strait for a period of 60 days.
In compliance with the MoU, the Islamic Republic devised a special maritime route for vessels to cross the chokepoint, while warning against transit through illegal routes.
The US has, however, been trying to escort transit through the strait along an illegal passageway, prompting the Islamic Republic to shut the corridor until Washington ends its interference in regional maritime movement.
