Tehran warns it will bar vessels tied to companies or governments that tap Iran’s frozen funds.
Tehran— Iran warned Tuesday it will block any vessel belonging to a company or country that draws on its frozen assets from transiting the Strait of Hormuz, after U.S. President Donald Trump proposed using that money to compensate ships damaged during the recent conflict.
“We inform all companies and countries that accept Trump’s proposal and use Iran’s blocked assets for this purpose that, from now on, the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will not allow any of their vessels to transit the Strait of Hormuz,” said Col. Ebrahim Zolfagari, spokesman for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, according to the Tasnim news agency.
Zolfagari sharply criticized Trump over the proposal to compensate vessels damaged during the war using Iran’s frozen funds, denouncing what he called U.S. “acts of aggression” and “continued efforts to destabilize the region.”
“We warn the criminal U.S. president about the consequences of this illegal measure,” Zolfagari said.
Trump said last Thursday that the United States would use Iran’s frozen assets to pay for ships and cargo damaged in attacks in and around the Gulf — remarks Tehran called an “incendiary precedent.”
Trump’s comments came amid an escalation between Iran and the United States that began in early July, after Tehran attacked commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz in response to the U.S.-backed opening of an alternative transit route promoted by Oman. Tehran maintains that ships may only cross the strait via the route specified by Iranian authorities.
Washington answered Iran’s actions in Hormuz with 13 consecutive days of airstrikes against the Islamic Republic, after declaring the mid-June understanding that had ended the war null. Tehran responded with missile and drone strikes on U.S. targets across several Middle Eastern countries.
Although the cross-strikes have stopped since Friday, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remains restricted under the blockade Iran imposed on July 12. In response, the U.S. reinstated a naval cordon around Iranian ports and vessels in the area two days later.
