Iran’s supreme leader vows to protect nuclear and missile capabilities

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s supreme leader defiantly vowed Thursday to protect the Islamic republic’s nuclear and missile capabilities, which U.S. President Donald Trump has sought to curtail through airstrikes and as part of a wider deal to cement the war’s shaky ceasefire.

In a statement read by a state television anchor, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said the only place Americans belonged in the Persian Gulf is “at the bottom of its waters” and that a “new chapter” was being written in the region’s history. Khamenei has not been seen in public since taking over as supreme leader following the killing of his father in the war’s opening airstrikes.

His remarks come as Iran’s economy is reeling and its oil industry is being squeezed by a U.S. navy blockade halting its tankers from getting out to sea. The world economy is also under pressure as Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of all crude oil is transported. On Thursday, the global benchmark for oil, Brent crude, traded as high as US$126 a barrel.

That shock to oil supplies and prices is putting pressure on Trump, who is floating a new plan to reopen the critical passageway used by the U.S.’ Gulf allies to export their oil and gas.

Under the plan, the U.S. would continue its blockade on Iranian ports, while coordinating with allies to impose higher costs on Iran’s attempts to subvert the free flow of energy, according to a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

In a cable sent Tuesday, the U.S. State Department instructed American diplomats around the world -- except those in Belarus, China, Cuba and Russia -- to seek their host government’s support for the Trump administration’s call for assistance in establishing a “maritime freedom construct” that would ensure free and unimpeded access to shipping through the strait.

“This commitment reflects broad international consensus on the need for coordinated action to counter Iranian maritime provocations and ensure navigational rights and freedoms in the Strait of Hormuz,” said the cable, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday.

The initiative, being led by the State Department and the Pentagon’s Central Command, “is a fundamentally defensive response to protect the rights of all countries to navigate international waters freely and safely and to hold Iran accountable for its aggressive and illegal actions to impede the free flow of commerce,” the cable said.

At the same time, Trump has also floated possible changes to U.S. troop presence in allied countries in Europe. The day after the president announced his administration was conducting a review on potentially reducing the U.S. troop presence in Germany, he was asked by a reporter whether he’d weigh pulling U.S. forces out of Italy and Spain -- which have sparred with the United States over use of bases for Iran-related operations.

“Why shouldn’t I,” Trump answered. “Italy has not been of any help to us, and Spain has been horrible, absolutely horrible.”

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Ceasefire shaken as strait remains shut

The U.S. blockade -- which as of Thursday has turned back some 44 commercial vessels, according to U.S. Central Command -- is designed to prevent Iran from selling its oil, depriving it of crucial revenue while also potentially creating a situation where Tehran has to shut off production because it has nowhere to store oil.

A recent Iranian proposal would push negotiations on the country’s nuclear program to a later date. Trump said one of the major reasons he went to war was to deny Iran the ability to develop nuclear weapons. Iran has long maintained its program is peaceful, though it enriched uranium at near-weapons-grade levels of 60 per cent.

Pakistan on Thursday said it was still facilitating indirect talks between the U.S. and Iran aimed at easing tensions, but that Islamabad would also welcome direct communication between the two sides, even by phone.

“If the two parties can engage in real-time conversations, that could ease the sticking points,” said Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Tahir Andrabi at a weekly news briefing. He declined to share details of any Iranian or U.S. proposals.

Speaking to mark Persian Gulf Day in Iran, Khamenei’s remarks signalled that nuclear issues and Iran’s ballistic missile program wouldn’t be traded away.

“Ninety million proud and honorable Iranians inside and outside the country regard all of Iran’s identity-based, spiritual, human, scientific, industrial and technological capacities -- from nanotechnology and biotechnology to nuclear and missile capabilities -- as national,” Khamenei said.

Khamenei referred to America as the “Great Satan,” a long hurled insult by Iranian leaders toward the U.S. since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

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Khamenei signals strait will remain shut

In his remarks, Khamenei seemed to signal Iran would maintain its control over the waterway, which sits in the territorial waters of Iran and Oman. Iran had been charging some ships reportedly US$2 million apiece to travel through the strait.

He said that Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz will make the Gulf more secure, and that Tehran’s “legal rules and new management” of the strait will benefit all the region’s nations.

However, the world considered the strait an international waterway, open to all without paying tolls. Gulf Arab nations, chief among them the United Arab Emirates, have decried Iran’s control of the strait as akin to piracy.

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Crackdown intensifies in Iran

Iran announced Thursday it hanged a 21-year-old man over charges stemming from the nationwide protests in January, the judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported.

The agency identified the executed man as Sasan Azadvar, from Isfahan. It said he was hanged for the crime of “effectively cooperating with the enemy by attacking police officers” during the protests.

Activists and rights groups say a crackdown on dissent, including a wave of executions, has further intensified since the U.S.-Israel war with Iran.

UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk said on Wednesday at least 21 people have been executed since the start of the war.

Iran routinely holds closed-door trials in which defendants are unable to challenge the accusations they face, rights groups say, warning that several other people remain at risk of execution.

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Fighting continues in southern Lebanon

Despite a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon-based, Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, the group has continued to claim attacks on Israeli troops in southern Lebanon. Israel’s military said one of its soldiers was killed in battle there Thursday, raising the troop casualties to 17 since the Iran war started.

Air raid sirens sounded multiple times in border communities in northern Israel on Thursday, too. The Israeli military said it struck military structures used by Hezbollah, and the Lebanese Health Ministry said nine were killed in strikes, including women and children.

Late on Thursday, the foreign ministry of United Arab Emirates -- which has come under attack by Iran during war -- announced a travel ban for its citizens covering Iran, Lebanon and Iraq, and urged those already in those countries to return home.

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By Jon Gambrell, The Associated Press

Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani in Washington, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.