Tensions between the United States and Iran have sharply intensified this week. Iran has drawn a firm line over an important shipping route. While Donald Trump renewed threats of strikes on Iranian infrastructure.
Why Iran says the Strait of Hormuz is a red line for the United States
On Thursday, Iran vowed to retaliate if the United States follows through on threats to strike Iranian infrastructure. A spokesperson for Iran’s top military command said that if Trump’s threats were carried out, “All infrastructure in the region will be crushed under the steel blows of the powerful armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran; so that no trace of them remains and it is as if they never existed in the first place.”
The dispute is based on the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow but important waterway that holds a large share of the world’s oil and other commodities. The spokesperson said that ” under no circumstances and in no way will we allow America, as a foreign and extra-regional country, to interfere in the Strait of Hormuz.”
They added: “This is Iran’s invincible red line.” That Iran Hormuz red line is now the central reason for the standoff. The warnings followed Trump Iran threats earlier in the week. In a Tuesday Fox News interview, Donald Trump talked about hitting Iranian power plants and bridges unless Tehran returned to talks.
“Next week it gets really bad for them because next week comes the power plants,” he said. According to U.S. Central Command, U.S. forces “struck Iranian command centers, air defense sites, missile and drone capabilities, and coastal surveillance facilities,” using precision munitions at several locations, including Bandar Abbas.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry promised for a forceful reply. The spokesperson said, “Our hands are not tied.” Oil markets also reacted to the escalating tensions, with Brent crude slipping Thursday amid uncertainty over the conflict.
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