In first speech, Iran's supreme leader vows to avenge “martyrs”, keep strait closed
PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo — Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of late Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, attends a meeting in Tehran, Iran, July 18, 2016. Amir Kholousi/ISNA/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
By Parisa Hafezi and Bo Erickson (Reuters)
DUBAI - Iran will avenge the blood of its martyrs, keep the Strait of Hormuz closed and attack U.S. bases, new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said on Thursday in a statement read out on state television, his first remarks since succeeding his slain father.
In the defiant address, Khamenei said the United States must close all its bases in the region. The strait, which runs past Iran's coast and supplies a fifth of the world's oil, should remain shut to put pressure on the enemy, he said.
Two tankers were ablaze in an Iraqi port on Thursday after a hit by suspected Iranian explosive-laden boats, a step-up in attacks that have cut off oil from the Middle East and defied U.S. President Donald Trump's claim to have won the war he launched two weeks ago.
Images verified by Reuters as having been filmed from the shore of the port of Basra showed ships engulfed in massive orange fireballs that lit up the night sky, after the attacks, which Iraqi authorities blamed on Iranian boats. At least one crew member was killed.
Hours earlier, three other ships had been struck in the Gulf. Iran's Revolutionary Guards claimed responsibility for at least one of those attacks, on a Thai bulk carrier that was set ablaze, which the Guards said had disobeyed their orders. Another container vessel reported being struck by an unknown projectile near the United Arab Emirates on Thursday.
GLOBAL ENERGY SUPPLIES DISRUPTED
The war that began with a U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign at the end of February has so far killed around 2,000 people and caused what the International Energy Agency describes as the biggest disruption to global energy supplies in history.
Undermining U.S. and Israeli claims to have knocked out much of Iran's stock of long-range weapons, more drones were reported on Thursday flying into Kuwait, Iraq, the UAE, Bahrain and Oman.
Lebanon's Iran-backed militia Hezbollah fired its biggest volley of rockets into Israel of the war, prompting fresh Israeli strikes on Beirut.
Oil prices soared back above $100 a barrel, having come down earlier in the week when Trump said the war would be over soon. Iran has said it will not let oil through the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important energy trade route, until U.S. and Israeli attacks cease.
TRUMP SAYS 'WE WON'
Trump has repeatedly tried to calm energy markets this week by saying the surge in oil prices will be short-lived.
But he has not explained how the war will end, or presented a plan to reopen the blockaded strait. U.S. and Israeli officials say the aim is to destroy Iran's missile and nuclear programmes, but Trump has also demanded Iran's "unconditional surrender" and the power to determine its leaders.
"You never like to say too early you won. We won," Trump told a campaign-style rally in Hebron, Kentucky, on Wednesday. "In the first hour it was over."
The United States had "virtually destroyed Iran", he said. But he added: "We don't want to leave early, do we? We got to finish the job."
(Reporting by Parisa Hafezi in Dubai, Alexander Cornwell in Tel Aviv and Jana Choukeir in Dubai and Bo Erickson in Hebron, Kentucky, and Reuters bureauxWriting by David Brunnstrom, Lincoln Feast, Peter GraffEditing by Michael Perry, Alex Richardson and Gareth Jones // REUTERS // Headline revised by Paul Garraty // OAF Nation)
