Iran threatens to attack Mideast infrastructure after Trump dismisses Hormuz proposal

Iran threatened on Tuesday to attack infrastructure around the Middle East, intensifying its rhetoric as it awaits a formal response from Washington on a new plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

US President Donald Trump has already dismissed the proposal from Tehran, but Iran’s foreign minister said Monday that he was expecting a formal response from American officials in the coming day.

Fighting has subsided in recent weeks, though Tehran has continued to target ships in the strait, with Washington falling back on an economic pressure campaign instead of further military action.

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Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf on Tuesday threatened new attacks, saying no infrastructure in the region would be safe if his country’s security was not guaranteed.

“In a region where we cannot sell oil, no one else will sell oil either; or if our security is not guaranteed, no infrastructure will remain safe,” Ghalibaf, who is also Iran’s parliament speaker, said according to a video released by state TV.

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Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he expected a formal answer from the US on Tuesday to Tehran’s proposal, state media reported.

Iran has maintained a blockade on commercial shipping through Hormuz since the war began in late February with US-Israeli strikes on the Islamic Republic.

The shipping route carried a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas before the conflict began.

The US military has been maintaining a counter-blockade of Iran’s ports in an effort to prevent Tehran from exporting oil.

Iran: Mediators expect final US response tomorrow

Araghchi said late Monday that Qatari intermediaries “presented ideas, and we discussed them; they are set to raise the matter with the American side once more, after which the final US response will be conveyed to us.”

The top diplomat, who was in New York for the UN General Assembly, said “the Qataris hope this will be done by tomorrow.”

“The current focus is solely on the Strait of Hormuz, and the reopening of the strait is contingent upon the fulfillment of certain conditions that we have communicated to the other side,” he added.

Last week, discussions were held in New York between Araghchi and US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

As a precondition for ending its blockade, Iran is demanding a seven-day ceasefire across the Middle East, including in Lebanon, where its ally, the Hezbollah terror group, is in a conflict with Israel after attacking the Jewish state in support of Tehran in March.

It is also demanding the unfreezing of Iranian assets abroad, the lifting of sanctions on its oil sector and an end to the US naval blockade on its ports.

Both sides claim to have control of Hormuz, with the US saying oil is moving through and Tehran insisting the waterway is closed.

IRGC insists Hormuz is closed, it strikes ‘any vessel’

On Tuesday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the ideological arm of the country’s military, said “the US claim that it remains open is false.”

“Sneaking a few hundred barrels of oil through under the cover of darkness — with transponders turned off and at great cost — does not constitute the strait being open,” said spokesperson Hossein Mohebi.

“A truly open strait is one where, as in the past, at least 125 vessels would pass through daily, transporting a minimum of 20 million barrels of oil and petroleum products.

“Any vessel attempting to pass through sustains damage — either we strike it, or it hits a mine,” he added.

Mohebbi also called the US president a “big liar” and denied that Iran was seeking nuclear weapons.

“The enemy knows that Iran is not after nuclear weapons,” Hossein Mohebbi said. “Their issue with Iran is not its nuclear program but rather its vastness, which they want to destroy.”

Preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon was among the key declared goals of the war, which the US and Israel launched together on February 28.

Trump on Monday denied a report that he is prepared to offer Iran sanctions relief and the release of frozen funds in exchange for nuclear concessions by the Islamic Republic.

Russia: Iran should remain in non-proliferation treaty

Russia said Tuesday it does not want Iran to quit the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and counts on it remaining a party to the agreement.

Iranian lawmakers have threatened to consider withdrawing from the pact in response to pressure aimed at shuttering the country’s nuclear program. Reports on Monday suggested that the threat was leveled again by Iranian deputy parliament speaker Ali Nikzad.

“This statement requires further clarification. We would not want Iran to withdraw from the NPT,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Russia and Iran have close ties under a strategic cooperation treaty between the two countries.

Iranian rial hits record low of 2.5 million to $1

Amid the back-and-forth, both main crude contracts rose more than one percent on Tuesday, with the lack of progress in ending the conflict putting upward pressure on fuel costs.

Average UK diesel prices have hit a record high, according to the RAC motoring organisation.

Meanwhile, Iran’s currency fell to a new record low, with traders in Tehran exchanging more than 2.5 million rials to the US dollar.

The latest decline came just 27 days after the rial hit its previous record of 2.2 million to the dollar on Sept. 2. The currency has repeatedly reached new lows since the war began.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

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