Hormuz is a ‘red line’

Iran said yesterday that the Strait of Hormuz was an inviolable “red line”, warning that if US President Donald Trump carried out his threat to attack Iran’s infrastructure, it would strike all infrastructure across the Gulf region.

The US launched a fifth night of attacks on Wednesday and reimposed a naval blockade of Iran’s ports, which Washington says is aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz, closed by Iran last Saturday after a fragile truce collapsed.

After the first strikes on Wednesday night, Tehran’s top negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf issued a statement saying: “We are in an essential and existential war with America”.

Iranian army spokesman Brigadier General Mohammad Akraminia said yesterday that the Strait of Hormuz was a “red line” for Iran over which it maintains firm control.

“The Americans thought that by attacking some of our bases on the southern coasts of the country, they could take control of this strategic strait,” Akraminia said.

“However, the Islamic Republic of Iran has the ability to exert control over the Strait of Hormuz from every single point of its territory, and this matter is never dependent on coasts and islands.”

The week of increasingly intense fire has tested the limits of escalation that both sides set during four months of fighting before last month’s truce. But in the midst of the attacks, US President Donald Trump hailed the release of a US citizen in Iran as a “gesture of goodwill”.

Three US officials told Reuters that US strikes aimed at forcing open the strait are also targeting Iranian military capabilities the US would want to destroy before executing more complex operations.

A source close to the Houthis in Yemen told Reuters yesterday Iran has asked Houthi movement to stand ready to close the Red Sea oil route if the United States strikes Iranian power infrastructure.

In yesterday’s retaliatory strikes, Iran’s army said it targeted the Al Azraq Air Base in Jordan with ballistic missiles, while Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had destroyed the satellite communications centre and early warning radar at the Ali Al Salem Air Base, as well as a US military pier in the Al Shuaiba area of Kuwait.

The Bahraini Defence Ministry said the country’s air defence systems had intercepted and destroyed a number of Iranian aerial attacks targeting the kingdom yesterday.

US Central Command said the military had attacked coastal defense systems and cruise missile storage and launch sites on Iran’s Greater Tunb Island starting around 6:00 am EDT (1000 GMT), then launched a second wave of strikes against multiple cities nine hours later.

Iranian news media reported a series of explosions in coastal areas such as Bandar Abbas, with additional strikes around Ahvaz near the northern Gulf and in Konarak, Sirik, and Qeshm in southern Iran.  Press TV said at least two blasts also hit the central city of Khondab, about 250 km southwest of Tehran, while Mehr news agency reported Iran had activated air defenses in the capital to counter “hostile threats.”

Pakistan, meanwhile, said it would encourage the United States and Iran to stop violence and resume talks under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) it helped mediate last month.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi condemned a “drone attack” that violated the airspace of Erbil in the northern Kurdistan region, his office said, after several drones were shot down, AFP reports.

The US State Department said it has approved the sale of an estimated $1.96 billion in weapons to bolster Saudi Arabia’s air defenses, as the war ramps up in the Middle East.

In a separate development, the US House of Representatives defeated an amendment to cut off aid to Israel on Wednesday, despite nearly half of Democrats supporting it, reflecting a growing rupture between US progressives and Israel over its attacks in Gaza.

The House voted 314 to 104 to defeat the measure, offered as an amendment to a State Department spending bill by Republican Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky.