Mojtaba Khamenei: what's happening and what it means

Mojtaba Khamenei says Tehran will eliminate ‘enemy’s abuses of the waterway’ and guard its nuclear and missile programmes. Mojtaba Khamenei has emerged this Friday as one of the stories drawing attention in Ghana.

Key facts

• Mojtaba Khamenei says Tehran will eliminate ‘enemy’s abuses of the waterway’ and guard its nuclear and missile programmes.
• “Today, two months after the largest military deployment and aggression by the world’s bullies in the region, and the United States’ disgraceful defeat in its plans, a new chapter is unfolding for the Persian Gulf and the strait of Hormuz,” Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement read by a state television anchor.
• “Foreigners who maliciously covet it [the strait] from thousands of kilometres away have no place there except at the bottom of its waters,” Khamenei’s statement said.
• Speaking to mark Persian Gulf Day in Iran, Khamenei also vowed that Iran would “guard its modern technological capacities – from nano to bio to nuclear and missile – as their national capital and will guard it like their maritime land and air borders”.
• No recording or visual sighting of Khamenei has been broadcast since he was appointed supreme leader in early March.

What we know

Going deeper, Speaking to mark Persian Gulf Day in Iran, Khamenei also vowed that Iran would “guard its modern technological capacities – from nano to bio to nuclear and missile – as their national capital and will guard it like their maritime land and air borders”.

On the substance, No recording or visual sighting of Khamenei has been broadcast since he was appointed supreme leader in early March.

Beyond the headlines, Reports have suggested that he was severely injured in the bombing that killed his 86-year-old father and predecessor on 28 February.

More precisely, since 13 April the US has mounted a counter-blockade designed to stop oil tankers moving in or out of Iranian ports, seizing up the Iranian oil industry.

It is worth noting that With Pakistan-mediated talks at an impasse, there is little sign of either blockade being lifted, pushing the oil price above $120 a barrel.

By the numbers

“Foreigners who maliciously covet it [the strait] from thousands of kilometres away have no place there except at the bottom of its waters,” Khamenei’s statement said.

On a related note, Vessel traffic levels are still extremely low, sometimes as low as three ships a day compared with 120–140 in normal conditions.

Going deeper, Trump’s admission on Wednesday that he knew no short way out of the impasse pushed oil prices close to $125 a barrel – as high as during the first weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

On the substance, the US is offering to coordinate diplomacy and communications between countries using the strait by reviving and broadening a 12 nation International Maritime Security Construct, a pre-existing naval operation set up in after threats to shipping by the Iranian navy.

What they're saying

“Today, two months after the largest military deployment and aggression by the world’s bullies in the region, and the United States’ disgraceful defeat in its plans, a new chapter is unfolding for the Persian Gulf and the strait of Hormuz,” Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement read by a state television anchor.

The wider context

On a related note, Iran’s supreme leader has broken his recent silence with a defiant statement hailing Iran’s control over shipping in the strait of Hormuz and vowing to guard the country’s nuclear and missile programmes.

Going deeper, the statement said Tehran would secure the Gulf region and eliminate what he described as “the enemy’s abuses of the waterway”, and that “new management of the strait will bring comfort and progress for the benefit of all the nations of the region and economic blessings will bring joy to the hearts of the people”.

On the substance, Iran has sought to extract a price for being attacked by exerting control over the strait, the narrow waterway through which about one-fifth of global oil typically transits.

Beyond the headlines, He is said to be in hospital being treated for injuries.

More precisely, his new statement suggests Iran is determined to implement a new fees regime in the strait that it will present as benefiting the entire region as a belated assertion of regional sovereignty.

The bottom line

• Since 13 April the US has mounted a counter-blockade designed to stop oil tankers moving in or out of Iranian ports, seizing up the Iranian oil industry.
• The US is offering to coordinate diplomacy and communications between countries using the strait by reviving and broadening a 12 nation International Maritime Security Construct, a pre-existing naval operation set up in after threats to shipping by the Iranian navy.
• The statement said Tehran would secure the Gulf region and eliminate what he described as “the enemy’s abuses of the waterway”, and that “new management of the strait will bring comfort and progress for the benefit of all the nations of the region and economic blessings will bring joy to the hearts of the people”.
• Searches spiking right now: Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei says new management of Strait of Hormuz 'will bring calm', Iran supreme leader issues defiant statement on strait of Hormuz, Max Meizlish: Inside Mojtaba Khamenei's Global Kleptocracy, ‘He was in that very building’: Iran official confirms Mojtaba survived strike that killed Ali Khamenei, dismisses health rumours.