Iran blames US, Israel for Hormuz tensions as crisis risks energy supplies
Al Jazeera
Iran’s Araghchi calls for global condemnation of US-Israel ‘military aggression’ that disrupted transit through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has blamed the United States-Israel war for disruptions to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the critical global artery through which one-fifth of the world’s oil shipments transit.
In a phone conversation with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday, Araghchi said every country and international institution concerned with peace and security must condemn the US and Israel and demand an “end to their military aggression against the Iranian nation”, according to Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency.
A barrel of Brent crude, the international benchmark, was up 2.5 percent at $105.70 on Monday. That is more than 40 percent higher than before the war began on February 28.
Several nations are reported to be negotiating with Iran for safe passage, after a senior adviser to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced on March 2 that the strait was “closed” and threatening to set transiting ships “ablaze”.
Araghchi on Monday said the strait was “open, but closed to our enemies”.
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