A senior Iranian lawmaker says parliament has concluded that the strait of Hormuz "should be closed" in response to US airstrikes on three nuclear sites early Sunday — a move that would severely disrupt global oil flows.
Esmaeil Kowsari — a member of the national security and foreign policy commission, and a former high-ranking commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — told state-owned Press TV that lawmakers had reached a consensus that closure would be the appropriate response. Argus understands that while members of parliament were all in agreement, the issue was not formally put to a vote. Kowsari said the final decision lies with the Supreme National Security Council, Iran's top security body.
His comments have drawn global attention as markets await Iran's response to the strikes, which US president Donald Trump ordered against nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. The Fordow site is heavily fortified and located underground. The Natanz facility had already been targeted by Israeli strikes, prompting a series of retaliatory missile and drone exchanges between Iran and Israel.
Iranian officials, including supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had repeatedly warned Washington that any direct military action would trigger a response causing "irreparable" harm to the US..
Variety of options
The strait of Hormuz is the world's most critical oil transit route, with around 17mn b/d of crude and refined products — roughly a quarter of global seaborne oil trade — passing through it. Iran has repeatedly threatened to close the strait in past confrontations but has never followed through. It has, however, previously targeted or seized vessels transiting the waterway, prompting some shipowners to consider alternative routes.
Closure of the strait is one of several retaliatory options regularly floated by Iranian political and military leaders. Others include military strikes on US bases across the Mideast Gulf. The US maintains installations in Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
Asked whether closing the strait was under consideration, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi declined to confirm, saying only that "there are a variety of options available to us". Araqchi travelled to Moscow late on Sunday and is expected to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin on Monday. Moscow has condemned the US strikes.
Ali Akbar Velayati, a long-time adviser to Khamenei, also issued a veiled threat to Washington, saying: "West Asia is not Greenland, and the strait of Hormuz is fundamentally different from the Panama Canal." The comment referenced earlier threats by Trump to assert US control over Greenland and the Panama Canal during the early days of his second term.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio warned that any attempt by Iran to close the strait would be "a terrible mistake."
"It's economic suicide for them if they do it, and we retain options to deal with that," he said.
