Iran’s new supreme leader has vowed to keep blocking the Strait of Hormuz, attack US bases and avenge the “blood of the martyrs” in his first statement since succeeding his father.
“The lever of blocking the Strait of Hormuz must definitely be used,” Mojtaba Khamenei said about the strategic waterway, which supplies a fifth of the world’s oil.
Khamenei said the US must close all of its military bases in the region “as soon as possible, because they must have realised by now that the claim of establishing security and peace by America was nothing more than a lie”.
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Iran’s new leader was appointed on March 9 by the Assembly of Experts, a group of senior clerics responsible for selecting the country’s supreme leader, after his father, Ali Khamenei, was killed in an air strike.
His remarks on Thursday were his first since his father’s death in late February, and were read on Iranian state television by a news anchor.
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Oil tankers set ablaze by Iranian drones as shipping vessels targeted in Middle East war
Oil tankers set ablaze by Iranian drones as shipping vessels targeted in Middle East war
“Iran will not refrain from avenging the blood of its martyrs,” Khamenei said, also adding the closure of the Strait of Hormuz must continue as a “tool to pressure the enemy”.
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