Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said this Tuesday they would not allow “one litre of oil” to be shipped from the Middle East if United States (US) and Israeli attacks continue, prompting a warning from US President Donald Trump that the US would hit Iran much harder if it blocked exports from the vital energy-producing region.
Trump’s comments came after global financial markets seesawed on Monday on concerns that Iran’s security establishment was rallying behind new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and was not prepared to back down any time soon.
Trump said the US had inflicted serious damage on Iran’s military and predicted the conflict would end well before the initial four-week time frame he had laid out. However, he has not defined what victory would look like.
Israel says its war aim is to overthrow Iran’s system of clerical rule. US officials mainly say Washington aims to destroy Iran’s missile capabilities and nuclear programme, but Trump has said the war can end only with a compliant Iranian government.
At least 1 332 Iranian civilians have been killed and thousands wounded since the US and Israel launched a barrage of air and missile strikes across Iran at the end of February, according to Iran’s UN Ambassador.
Trump warned that US attacks could rise sharply if Iran sought to block tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which handles one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.
“We will hit them so hard that it will not be possible for them or anybody else helping them to ever recover that section of the world,” Trump said at a news conference on Monday.
–Reuters–
