Iran seeks to guarantee oil passage security in Persian Gulf
Senior Iranian military official Brigadier General Yahya Rahim-Safavi says the Islamic Republic seeks to guarantee the security of oil shipments passing through the Persian Gulf with the help of regional countries, Press TV reports.
“The presence of the Islamic Republic in the Strait of Hormuz as the Persian Gulf’s number one power guarantees the security of oil exports to the world,” the senior military adviser to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Monday.
Referring to the fact that the vessels crossing the Persian Gulf must pass by Iranian islands, Rahim-Safavi said, “The Islamic Republic seeks to guarantee the security of oil exports in this region with the help of Persian Gulf southern littoral countries.”
The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway which connects the Persian Gulf on the west to the Sea of Oman.
Statistically, the waterway is one of the world's most important shipping lanes, with a daily flow of about 15 million barrels of oil.
“We guarantee the [security of] oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz on the condition that no military threat is issued against our country because Asia’s southeastern countries direly need the region’s oil.”
Rahim-Safavi added that Iran uses its islands in the Persian Gulf near the Strait of Hormuz as military bases to defend the country.