Iran's Chief Negotiator: 'No Infrastructure Will Remain Safe'
As Tehran waited for the American answer, its parliament speaker and chief negotiator put the threat in the plainest terms yet. “In a region where we cannot sell oil, no one else will sell oil either,” said Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, “or if our security is not guaranteed, no infrastructure will remain safe.” The Revolutionary Guards separately maintain the strait is closed, whatever Washington says.
It is an oil-for-oil formulation, and it is aimed less at America than at the Gulf states whose exports have partly recovered while Iran’s remain blocked. That is the leverage Tehran has left: not the ability to sell, but the ability to stop others selling, either through the strait itself or through the energy infrastructure that has already been hit repeatedly this year. It is worth noting who is speaking. Ghalibaf is the chief negotiator, not a military commander, so this is the diplomatic track making the threat rather than the armed forces, which is a deliberate choice about who the message is from. Iran has blockaded commercial shipping through the strait since late February. Watch whether the language is repeated by anyone in uniform.