TEHRAN — Iran’s parliament speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Tuesday that any obstruction to the country’s energy exports would have consequences for the entire region, according to the state-run IRNA news agency
“If Iran cannot sell its oil, no one in the region will sell oil, and if our security is not guaranteed, no infrastructure will be safe,” Ghalibaf said in an online parliamentary session, cautioning Washington against “miscalculations”.
“If our security is not guaranteed, no infrastructure will be safe,” Ghalibaf said.
His warning comes as Iran faces severe restrictions on its oil exports amid the ongoing conflict with Washington and US sanctions.
Iran’s Central Bank governor said in August that the country’s oil exports had fallen to zero, saying Tehran was no longer exporting crude because of the war and sanctions.
The US military, meanwhile, said on Sept. 19 that more than 1 billion barrels of crude oil had passed through the Strait of Hormuz in recent months with US military assistance, while claiming Iran had exported “zero barrels” under what Washington calls its “ironclad blockade.”
“The Iranian people must never be frightened by blockade and threats. If the American enemy’s decision-making machine fails to grasp this fundamental reality, it will remain trapped in a cycle of receiving heavy blows from the Iranian nation,” Ghalibaf said.
Ghalibaf also referred to recent remarks by US President Donald Trump concerning the Strait of Hormuz and the passage of vessels through the waterway, describing them as a repetition of earlier US claims.
IRGC spokesman Hossein Mohebi, speaking at a press conference with foreign media on Tuesday, called Trump “a big liar” and said US forces must leave the Middle East.
“We are constantly designing new weapons, upgrading existing ones and mass-producing armaments to defend ourselves,” Mohebi said.
“If the confrontations take on a different shape, we will certainly bring new weapons into the field.”
Ebrahim Azizi, head of parliament’s National Security Committee, has separately said Iran is fully prepared for a conflict more intense than what he described as the “40-day war”.
On regional relations, Mohebi said US military bases were “the only source of insecurity” in the region and pointed to “long-standing bonds” with 15 neighboring countries.
Since the US-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February in the opening salvo of the war, Tehran’s retaliatory actions — including strikes on the territory of its neighbours, disruption of shipping and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz — have strained those relationships.
On Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Qatari mediators will present the US with new ideas discussed with Tehran on how to meet Iran’s conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian officials have insisted their targets are solely US military assets. Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the president of the United Arab Emirates, said recently in Dubai that while relations with Tehran should continue, trust damaged by attacks in the Gulf would take years to rebuild.
On nuclear matters, Mohebi rejected claims that Iran is weeks away from building a nuclear weapon, calling them “the same lie that has been propagated for 25 years.”
Since Mojtaba Khamenei was selected as the Islamic Republic’s new supreme leader, voices within Iran’s political establishment have increasingly raised the possibility of a review of the country’s nuclear doctrine, a development that has drawn international concern.
Source: Saudi Gazette