Iran warns 'no port in Gulf, Sea of Oman will be safe' after US blockade

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned Monday that “no port in the Gulf and the Sea of Oman will be safe” after the US imposed a blockade on all traffic entering and leaving Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz. The security of ports in the Gulf and the Sea of Oman is “either for everyone or for no one,” the IRGC said in a statement carried by the state broadcaster IRIB. The Iranian armed forces “consider the defence of the country’s legal rights a natural and lawful duty, and therefore the exercise of sovereignty over Iran’s territorial waters is a natural right of the Iranian nation,” it stated. “Enemy-affiliated vessels” will be denied passage through the Strait of Hormuz, while other ships may transit subject to regulations set by Tehran, the statement noted. Read More: US set to begin naval blockade of Iran's ports Citing “continuing enemy threats,” the IRGC said Iran “will firmly implement a permanent mechanism for controlling the Strait of Hormuz” even after the war. “The restrictions imposed by the criminal United States on maritime movement in international waters are illegal and amount to piracy,” it added. Washington said it will enforce a blockade on the Iranian ports as of 1400GMT on Monday. The US move came after the two sides held rare direct talks in Islamabad, on Saturday to end their conflict, which started on February 28 after a joint US-Israeli offensive on Tehran. The talks ended without an agreement.