Iran to regard any country joining US economic war as enemy

Iran’s highest security official Mohsen Rezaei warned on Saturday (22/8) that any country joining the United States’ economic war against Iran would be regarded as an “enemy” by Tehran.

Rezaei, who serves as secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, made the statement in an interview with state television station IRIB TV.

He said Iran would first negotiate with such countries and ask them not to interfere in the conflict, but warned that if they refused, Tehran would strike at their interests, and that if neighbouring countries chose to join the US blockade, Iran “would not allow a single drop of oil to be exported from the Strait of Hormuz.”

He said Iran had studied ways to circumvent US sanctions and had continued selling oil for many years.

Rezaei also reaffirmed that the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed unless the US fulfilled its commitments under the Iran-US peace memorandum of understanding signed last June, adding that this time Washington must act first.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday (19/8) that the US would launch “the most devastating economic operation ever conducted” against Iran, describing it as “economic war and isolation on an unprecedented scale.”