The Iranian military on Thursday warned that the continued presence of US manned and unmanned aircraft over the Strait of Hormuz “has caused insecurity in this waterway and will threaten regional security” as the US has maintained its military buildup and heightened activity in the region.
“The Strait of Hormuz is not a playground for an aggressive America, but the undisputed sovereign domain of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The security and stability of this vital waterway are a red line for the powerful armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said in a statement, according to Iran’s Mehr news agency.
The statement came a day after the US Navy said that an MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter assigned to the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush had made an emergency landing in the Arabian Sea and that three out of four of the crew members had been recovered, while one was missing. It’s unclear why the helicopter went down, but the Navy said it didn’t appear to be related to any hostile activity.
The Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters also issued a warning to ships in the region, saying that any ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz along routes not approved by Iran would face “an immediate and forceful response” from the Iranian armed forces. Last week, an Iranian drone struck a ship attempting to cross the strait without coordinating with Iran, which the US responded to by bombing Iran, starting a back-and-forth of strikes that lasted through the weekend.
Iran has maintained that the wording of the MoU means it is solely responsible for traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and that any arrangements it’s not involved in violate the agreement. Tehran is also not dropping its insistence that in the future, ships traveling the strait will pay some sort of service fee.
