TEHRAN, Iran: Iran threatened to impose a maritime exclusion zone in the Persian Gulf as tensions with the United States intensified and regional fighting spread to Saudi Arabia.
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Tehran would answer what he called U.S. “economic warfare” with restrictions extending to the perimeter of Washington’s blockade of Iranian ports.
Rezaei also said Iran had changed its operational posture toward U.S. warships and military bases. Iranian state media reported that Tehran recently fired a Qassem Basir ballistic missile toward U.S. vessels near the Strait of Hormuz.
The U.S. military said its warships evaded the missile attacks. Iran describes the Qassem Basir as a manoeuvrable missile designed to operate against missile-defence and electronic-warfare systems.
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Meanwhile, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis attacked several Saudi cities. The Saudi-led coalition said 73 people were wounded in strikes on civilian and economic sites.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree also said the group would announce a broader operation deeper inside Saudi territory. Egypt and Jordan condemned the attacks and expressed support for Saudi Arabia.
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Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remained sharply constrained. Reuters, citing Kpler data, reported that seven commodity vessels crossed the waterway on Monday, down from eight a day earlier.
Before the war, about one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments passed through the strait.
