Iran’s supreme leader claimed Thursday that the U.S. has suffered a "disgraceful defeat" and Tehran will safeguard its nuclear and missile capabilities as a “national asset."
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, speaking in a written statement read by a state television anchor, as he has since taking over as Iran's supreme leader, struck a defiant tone, insisting the only place Americans belonged in the Persian Gulf is "at the bottom of its waters."
"Today, two months after the largest military deployment and aggression by the world's bullies in the region, and the United States' disgraceful defeat in its plans, a new chapter is unfolding for the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz," said Khamenei.
However, his remarks come as Iran's oil industry has begun to be squeezed by a U.S. Navy blockade halting its oil tankers from getting out to sea. Meanwhile, benchmark Brent crude for June delivery reached as much as $126 a barrel in trading Thursday as Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all crude oil and natural gas traded passes.
All this is putting additional pressure on the world's economy as Trump likely weighs how to respond.
"By God’s help and power, the bright future of the Persian Gulf region will be a future without America, one serving the progress, comfort and prosperity of its people," Khamenei said in the statement, read like all others since he reportedly was wounded in the Feb. 28 attack that killed his father, the 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
"We and our neighbors across the waters of the Persian Gulf and the (Gulf) of Oman share a common destiny. Foreigners who come from thousands of kilometers away to act with greed and malice there have no place in it – except at the bottom of its waters."
With a fragile cease-fire in place, the U.S. and Iran are locked in a standoff over the strait. The U.S blockade is designed to prevent Iran from selling its oil, depriving it of crucial revenue while also potentially creating a situation where Tehran has to shut off production because it has nowhere to store oil.
The Strait’s closure, meanwhile, has put pressure on Trump, as oil and gasoline prices have skyrocketed ahead of crucial midterm elections, and it has pressured his Gulf allies, which use the waterway to export their oil and gas.
A recent Iranian proposal would push negotiations on the country’s nuclear program to a later date. Trump said one of the major reasons he went to war was to deny Iran the ability to develop nuclear weapons.
Iran has long maintained that its program is peaceful, though it enriched uranium at near-weapons-grade levels of 60%.
Speaking to mark Persian Gulf Day in Iran, Khamenei's remarks signaled that nuclear issues and Iran's ballistic missile program wouldn't be traded away.
"Ninety million proud and honorable Iranians inside and outside the country regard all of Iran’s identity-based, spiritual, human, scientific, industrial and technological capacities – from nanotechnology and biotechnology to nuclear and missile capabilities – as national assets, and will protect them just as they protect the country’s waters, land and airspace," Khamenei said.
He referred to America as the "Great Satan," a long hurled insult by Iranian leaders toward the U.S. since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
In his remarks, Khamenei seemed to signal Iran would maintain its control over the waterway, which sits in the territorial waters of Iran and Oman. Iran had been charging some ships reportedly $2 million apiece to travel through the strait.
"Islamic Iran, by giving practical thanks for the blessing of exercising control over the Strait of Hormuz, will make the Persian Gulf region secure and put an end to the hostile enemy’s abuses of this waterway," Khamenei said.
"The legal rules and new management of the Strait of Hormuz will bring comfort and progress for the benefit of all the region’s nations, and its economic gains will gladden the hearts of the people."
However, the world considered the strait an international waterway, open to all without paying tolls. Gulf Arab nations, chief among them the United Arab Emirates, have decried Iran's control of the strait as akin to piracy.
