IRGC official warns Iran's Gulf coast will become 'graveyard' if US strikes resume
A senior IRGC Navy official threatened on Wednesday to turn Iran's Gulf coastline into a killing ground if the US resumes military action, even as negotiators reported the two sides were closer to an initial agreement than at any point since the April ceasefire. The IRGC Navy's political deputy Mohammad Akbarzadeh said Iran would 'turn the area from Chabahar to Mahshahr into a graveyard for aggressors,' according to Tasnim news agency. Talks over an initial deal remain stuck on control of the Strait of Hormuz and the nuclear file, with neither side yielding.
A senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy official warned on Wednesday that Iran would turn its entire Gulf coastline into a killing ground if the United States resumes military strikes, even as negotiators reported the two sides were closer to an initial agreement than at any point since the April ceasefire.
The IRGC Navy's political deputy, Mohammad Akbarzadeh, said Iran would "turn the area from Chabahar to Mahshahr into a graveyard for aggressors," according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency. Chabahar and Mahshahr are Iranian port cities at opposite ends of the country's coastline, spanning roughly 1,500 kilometers from the Gulf of Oman to the end of the Persian Gulf. The Strait of Hormuz lies between them.
"Our fighters today carry in their chests the urge for hand-to-hand battle with the enemy," Akbarzadeh said. He described the prospect of renewed war as remote, attributing that to what he called the "weakness" of the opposing side.
Akbarzadeh also said the United States had suffered a strategic defeat over the Strait of Hormuz. "They claimed that they could reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but after the closure of this waterway, even with all their power they could not accomplish anything," he said. "The Americans think they can speak to the Islamic Republic with the language of force, but apparently they still have not learned that one should not speak to Iranians with the language of threats."
A Pentagon official separately assessed that the U.S. naval blockade had adversely affected some $5 billion (€4.3 billion) in Iran's oil revenues.
The ceasefire between the two sides took effect on 8 April. Negotiations over an initial agreement remain stuck on control of the Strait of Hormuz and the nuclear file, with neither side yielding.
Speaking from Moscow, where he attended a security conference, Deputy Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Bagheri Kani said the two sides had not yet agreed on lifting the blockade. He said Tehran's enriched uranium stockpiles were not on the negotiating agenda, and confirmed that Iran and Oman were in separate talks over a new procedure for ship passage through the Strait of Hormuz.