Iran’s new supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei ordered the Strait of Hormuz oil shipping lane to remain closed on Thursday, March 12.
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei’s message was read by a newscaster on state television. He has yet to appear publicly since his nomination last Sunday as supreme leader, after he was reportedly injured in an airstrike.
Khamenei, whose father Ali Khamenei was k!lled in the first wave of US-Israeli attacks at the start of the Middle East war, called for the Strait of Hormuz to remain blocked and for Gulf countries to close their US military bases.
“The lever of blocking the Strait of Hormuz must definitely be used,” Khamenei said of the waterway through which a quarter of world’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) usually transit.
He added that “a limited amount of” Iran’s revenge for US and Israeli strikes had “taken concrete form, but until it is fully achieved, this case will remain among our priorities.”
Iran launched a new wave of attacks against Gulf energy targets on Thursday, March 12, that sent prices oil spiking briefly above $100 a barrel and led to a warning that the crisis could lead to to “the largest supply disruption” in history.
But Trump dismissed growing concerns, writing on social media that “of far greater interest and importance to me, as President, is stoping an evil Empire, Iran, from having Nuclear Weapons, and destroying the Middle East and, indeed, the World.”
Meanwhile, Mojtaba Khamenei, the new supreme leader of Iran, has called for national unity while acknowledging the personal and national losses suffered during the recent conflict.
The message, read on state television on Thursday, March 12, expressed condolences to families who lost loved ones and promised that the government would compensate those affected by the damage caused during the war.
“We have to protect this unity and this is only possible when we are together and we find common ground,” the statement said.
Khamenei linked the nation’s suffering to his own personal losses, revealing that members of his family were among those killed in recent strikes.
“I lost my father, I lost my wife. My sister lost her child as well as her husband,” he said, referring to the death of his father and former supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
He said faith and patience would help the nation endure the difficult period.
“What makes it easier for us to endure all these plights is to trust the grace of God and to know that patience will resolve it,” he added.
Khamenei also praised citizens across the country for their resilience, commending people “from all walks of life who stood against the enemy.”
At the same time, the new leader vowed that those killed during the conflict would be avenged.
“I assure everyone that we will not ignore the fact that we are going to revenge our martyrs,” he said.
“It is not only about the fact that they martyred our supreme leader. It is about every single countryman that has been killed during the recent war.”
