Tehran will never cede control of Strait of Hormuz, senior Iranian politician tells BBC

Tehran will never cede control of Strait of Hormuz, senior Iranian politician tells BBC11 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleLyse DoucetChief international correspondentBBC"Never." That's when a senior Iranian lawmaker says they'll be ready to give up their control of the Strait of Hormuz."It's our inalienable right," Ebrahim Azizi, a former commander in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), tells the BBC in Tehran. "Iran will decide the right of passage, including permissions for vessels to pass through the Strait."And he says that's about to become enshrined in law."We are introducing a bill in parliament, based on article 110 of the constitution, which includes the environment, maritime safety and national security - and the armed forces will implement the law," says this member of parliament who heads the Committee for National Security and Foreign Policy.Follow updates on the Iran warAs worry mounts about the closure of this strategic waterway causing growing economic shocks worldwide, it's becoming clear this is not a short-term crisis to be resolved in a day.War has handed Tehran what it sees as a new weapon - Azizi described this highly strategic strait Iran has managed to weaponise during this conflict as "one of our assets to face the enemy".He's a key player in a parliament dominated by hardliners. Azizi also reflects the thinking among some of the senior decision-makers emerging in the new order born of this war, which has become increasingly militarised and also dominated by hardliners, most of all the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), after a series of high-level assassinations in Israeli strikes.Tehran now sees its ability to control the passage of vital maritime traffic, including critical oil and gas tankers, not just as a bargaining chip in current negotiations, but as long-term leverage."The first priority for Iran after the war...