IRGC warns of blocking more waterways after Hormuz as US renews blockade of Iranian ports

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has threatened to close “all other export corridors that benefit the US and its allies”, Iranian media reported on Wednesday, after Tehran shut the Strait of Hormuz and the US reimposed a naval blockade of Iranian ports. The IRGC said the renewed US blockade had cut off oil and gas exports to the world, including “America’s economic rivals”, and warned that routes serving US and allied interests could also be shut, Iran’s state news agency, IRNA, reported on Wednesday. “Regional energy exports are either shared by all or denied to all, ” the IRGC said in its statement. It also said that the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed until “the end of America’s evils”. The vital Strait of Hormuz, which served as the passage for one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas supply daily during peacetime, is now at the centre of a flare-up in the US-Israeli war on Iran that has rattled the Middle East and pushed up global energy prices. Analysts have said Iran has also been signalling it may use the Houthis in Yemen to shut the Bab-el-Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea, opening a new front against Washington and putting two of the world’s most vital energy arteries at risk. The narrow gateway links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, through which Saudi oil exports and a substantial share of global shipping pass. The Houthis have already shown they can choke global commerce through the Bab-el-Mandeb. After Israel launched an assault on Gaza in October 2023, Houthis launched attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, saying it was targeting vessels linked to Israel in support of Palestinians. The latest threat to global shipping comes a day after the US military said it began a fresh round of strikes “to continue degrading Iranian capabilities used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. ” The United States claimed Iran had attacked seven commercial ships over the last week, leading to nearly a dozen crew members being killed, missing or injured. Fresh salvo The US military said late on Tuesday that it hit dozens of military targets near the Strait of Hormuz and Iranian coastal areas. The wave of strikes lasted seven hours, the US Central Command said in a statement. Iranian state media reported explosions near the port city of Bandar Abbas, on the island of Qeshm and on Bandar Imam Khomeini. According to state broadcaster IRIB, a wheat storage silo in Iran’s southwestern city of Hoveyzeh was also hit by US projectiles. Meanwhile, IRNA said projectiles hit an area near Sirik in southern Iran. None of the Iranian reports mentioned any casualties. Soon after the strikes, sirens rang out in Bahrain, while Kuwait and Jordan reported intercepting drones and missiles fired from Iran. IRNA reported that Iranian forces launched a drone attack on a military base in Jordan that hosts American warplanes, while the Guards had hit US facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait. The Guards said they had also targeted command-and-control, logistics, fuel and military equipment facilities belonging to the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, in response to the latest US strikes in the Strait of Hormuz. The IRGC further said it had set fire to and destroyed a US logistics facility in Kuwait’s Mina Abdullah and that its air force had struck a US base at Azraq in Jordan, targeting aircraft hangars. It alleged that some of the US attacks had been launched from bases on Jordanian territory. Kuwait’s state news agency reported that a fire was brought under control at a site targeted in Iranian attacks. It was not immediately clear whether the fire was at the same site referred to in the IRGC statement. The hostilities between Iran and the US reignited last week, fraying an already fragile truce reached in June after several months of fighting that has killed thousands. Since last week, renewed US attacks have killed at least 28 people in Iran, according to an AFP tally based on Iranian media and official announcements. Trump has warned he would widen the strikes on Iran next week to hit power plants and bridges if Tehran does not return to the negotiating table. “Next week it gets really bad for them, ” he told Fox News on Tuesday night. The latest strikes came hours after US President Donald Trump backed down on his planned 20 per cent levy on ships using the Strait Hormuz. Tehran insists it controls the key oil shipping corridor, which was open to free navigation before the US-Israeli attacks in late February sparked the ongoing conflict. Tehran has recently also targeted ships in the strait for taking routes it says are unauthorised. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said the US decision to restore the blockade “has, in a way, dismantled the Islamabad memorandum”, referring to the interim deal reached last month to halt hostilities and pursue peace talks.

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