Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters announced on Tuesday that it views a recent announcement by US President Donald Trump about compensating countries and entities for damage inflicted on their ships in the Persian Gulf from Iran’s frozen assets as “illegal”.
The command, which is in charge of coordinating Iranian armed forces during war and crisis times, said ship owners will face consequences if they receive such compensation.
“…we declare to all companies and countries that welcome Trump's proposal and use Iran's blocked assets under this pretext, that from now on, the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will not allow any of their vessels to transit through the Strait of Hormuz,” said the statement.
It added that the damage caused to cargo ships and tankers in recent months has been a result of the insecurity caused by the US military in the region.
It also said that ships that have suffered damage have violated navigation protocols announced by Iran for safe sailing in the Strait of Hormuz and have chosen to travel “through the illegal and unsafe route” south of the Strait.
Iran has imposed strict controls on transit through Hormuz since the early days of the US-Israeli aggression on the country on February 28.
Iran agreed to gradually ease the restrictions under a memorandum of understanding signed with the US last month that sought to permanently end the aggression and lift sanctions from the country.
However, passage through Hormuz came under renewed checks and controls after the US failed to uphold those terms of the understanding that exclusively delegated the responsibility for controlling the strait to Iran.