Iran remains defiant as it vows to fight US until demands met

Tehran, Iran – Shortly after meeting China’s ambassador, Iran’s new security chief left no room for doubt about Tehran’s position after nearly six months of war with the United States.

“Iran’s message is clear: The Strait of Hormuz will not reopen until the US ends the war and blockade, releases Iran’s frozen assets, and agrees to a region-wide ceasefire, including in Lebanon and Gaza,” Mohsen Rezaei said in a social media post late on Tuesday.

“Until all conditions are met, the Strait will remain closed,” added the former wartime commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

His defiant message was in line with conditions emphasised by his predecessor, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, and by newly appointed commanders as Iranian authorities maintain that they are willing and capable of continuing to stand up to their opponents in the US-Israel war on Iran.

In his first meeting as secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Rezaei sat down with a delegation led by China’s envoy to Tehran, Cong Peiwu, on Tuesday. State media said he pushed for closer ties with China, praised its unwillingness to go along with US-backed resolutions targeting Iran at the United Nations, and said any potential deal with Oman over the Strait of Hormuz is separate from Washington.

But an arrangement with Oman, which Tehran said last week had been finalised and was awaiting confirmation at the top, still does not appear imminent, with military action continuing in the Strait of Hormuz, as well as the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb Strait.

A merchant ship appeared to have been hit by a projectile off the coast of Oman on Sunday night, when Rezaei’s appointment was announced. The Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen launched their deadliest recent maritime attack on Tuesday, hitting an Egyptian-owned ship in the Red Sea in an attack that killed six people, according to the Houthis’ rival, Yemen’s internationally recognised government.

The US military reported an overnight attack on Tuesday, saying a US Navy helicopter fired two Hellfire missiles at a Panama-flagged vessel in order to enforce its naval blockade of Iran’s southern ports. This marked the 12th vessel attacked by US forces since April, and the third since the blockade resumed almost a month ago after the collapse of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that was signed by Iran and the US in June.