In yet another warning to US, Iran’s Mojtaba Khamenei says ‘enemies will be forced out’ of Mideast

As tensions remain high in the Middle East with the conflict entering its eighth month, Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei targeted the United States (US) once again on Monday and said the Americans would be forced to evacuate the region due to the “painful blows” it will suffer. However, the 56-year-old did not name the US in his message, even as attempts continue to revie the talks between the two sides. 

“Today, having suffered painful blows at the hands of valiant fighters and the guardians of the Strait of Hormuz, they (the enemies) do not venture beyond the Arabian Sea,” he said in a written statement. “Whenever they have braved this risk, they have only brought harm upon themselves. It will not be long before the Arabian Sea, too, would rid itself of their presence.”

The Arabian Sea is also a critical maritime corridor that leads to Iran’s coasts and the Strait of Hormuz. Iran and the US want to maintain a control over Hormuz through which nearly 20 per cent of global oil and gas transits. Iran has blocked the strait, forcing the US to block Iranian ports in the region, leading to a global crisis.

Iran’s proposal and Trump’s rejection

Iran has proposed a plan to the US to reopen the Hormuz, but President Donald Trump has rejected it; although Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian the new plan was backed by Mojtaba, who became the Supreme Leader after his father and predecessor Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a joint American-Israeli strike on February 28.

“Coordination with the leader of the revolution (the supreme leader)… has been carried out,” Pezeshkian told broadcaster CBS. “If the US accepts it and fulfils its obligations, we will do the same, and there will be no issue in this regard.”

The proposal had the same conditions that was proposed by Iran in the memorandum of understanding (MoU) Tehran and Washington had signed in June, Foreign Minister Syed Abbas Araghchi said. It called for a release of frozen Iranian assets, ending the US naval blockade and lifting all sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic. 

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