Paris Asks Iran to Respect Navigation Rights in Hormuz amid U.S. Warning
The U.S. warned Iran on Wednesday against any attempt to disrupt shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, after Tehran issued threats over the vital oil route, as France called on Iranian authorities to respect international law and navigation rights.
"Interference with the transit ... of vessels through the Strait of Hormuz will not be tolerated," said Pentagon press secretary George Little.
"The Iranians conduct exercises on a fairly routine basis in this area. That's something that we know about," Little said.
"That being said any effort to raise the temperature on tensions surrounding the Strait of Hormuz is unhelpful," he added.
But he noted there was no sign of Iran taking provocative steps near the channel.
"I'm unaware of any aggressive hostile action directed toward U.S. vessels in the Persian Gulf or the Strait of Hormuz," or against other ships, Little said.
For his part, French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said: "As with human rights and nuclear proliferation, we are calling on the Iranian authorities to respect international law and in particular the freedom to navigate in international waters and straits."
"The Strait of Hormuz is an international strait. Therefore all ships, no matter what flag they fly, have the right of transit passage," he said.
Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi warned on Tuesday that "not a drop of oil will pass through the Strait of Hormuz" if the West broadened sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.
The United States and the European Union are considering new sanctions aimed at Iran's oil and financial sectors. But EU governments have been divided over whether to impose an embargo on Iranian crude.
More than a third of the world's tanker-borne oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz, linking the Gulf -- and its petroleum-exporting states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- to the Indian Ocean.
Iran's navy chief said Wednesday his country would find it "really easy" to close the strait, but would not do so right now.
"Shutting the strait for Iran's armed forces is really easy -- or as we say (in Iran) easier than drinking a glass of water," Admiral Habibollah Sayari said in an interview with Iran's Press TV.
"But today, we don't need (to shut) the strait because we have the Sea of Oman under control, and can control the transit," he said.
Sayari was speaking as Iran's navy held war games in international waters to the east of the channel.
World prices briefly climbed after Rahimi’s threat on Tuesday.
"The enemies will only drop their plots when we put them back in their place," the official news agency IRNA quoted Rahimi as saying.
The United States maintains a naval presence in the Gulf in large part to ensure that passage for oil remains free.
But Sayari asserted that the Strait of Hormuz "is completely under the control of the Islamic Republic of Iran."
He said Iran's navy was constituted with the aim of being able to close the strait if necessary.
Sayari said the navy maneuvers east of the strait were designed to show Gulf neighbors the power of Iran's military over the zone.
Ships and aircraft dropped mines in the sea Tuesday as part of the drill, and on Wednesday drones flew out over the Indian Ocean, according to a navy spokesman, Admiral Mahmoud Mousavi.
Iran has several times said it is ready to target the strait if it is attacked or economically strangled by Western sanctions over its nuclear program.
An Iranian lawmaker's comments last week that the navy exercises would block the Strait of Hormuz briefly sent oil prices soaring before that was denied by the government.
Tehran in September rejected a Washington call for a military hotline between the capitals to defuse any "miscalculations" that could occur between their navies in the Gulf.
In Washington, U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner dismissed the latest threat from Iran's vice president.
"I just think it's another attempt by them to distract attention from the real issue, which is their continued non-compliance with their international nuclear obligations," Toner told reporters.
The United States and other Western countries accuse Iran of using its uranium enrichment program to build nuclear weapons. Iran denies the charges.
Extra U.S. and European sanctions aimed at Iran's oil and financial sectors are being considered.
A European Union spokesman said Wednesday the bloc was pressing ahead with those plans regardless of Tehran's threat.
Source: Agence France Presse
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