DUBAI — An IRGC Navy official threatened on Wednesday to turn Iran’s entire coastline into a killing ground if the United States resorted to military action again, even as negotiators reported the two sides were closer to an initial agreement than at any point since the April ceasefire. “Our fighters today carry in their chests the urge for hand-to-hand battle with the enemy,” the IRGC Navy’s political deputy Mohammad Akbarzadeh said, according to Tasnim news agency. Akbarzadeh said Iran’s armed forces were at full readiness and described the prospect of renewed war as remote, attributing that to what he called the “weakness” of the opposing side. He said Iran would “turn the area from Chabahar to Mahshahr into a graveyard for aggressors” if the US resumed attacks on the country. Chabahar and Mahshahr are Iranian port cities at opposite ends of the country’s long coastline — spanning roughly 1,500 kilometers from the Gulf of Oman to the end of the Arabian Gulf. The Strait of Hormuz lies between them. Akbarzadeh also said the US had suffered a strategic defeat over the strait. “They claimed that they could reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but after the closure of this waterway, even with all their power they could not accomplish anything,” he said. “The Americans think they can speak to the Islamic Republic with the language of force, but apparently they still have not learned that one should not speak to Iranians with the language of threats.” A Pentagon official separately assessed that the US naval blockade had adversely affected some $5 billion (€4.3bn) in Iran’s oil revenues. Negotiations between Tehran and Washington over an initial agreement are reported to be closer to a conclusion than at any point since the ceasefire took effect on 8 April, although control of the Strait and the nuclear file remain the two areas where neither side has budged in their demands. Speaking from Moscow, where he attended a security conference, Deputy Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Bagheri Kani said the two sides had not yet agreed on lifting the blockade. He said Tehran’s enriched uranium stockpiles were not on the negotiating agenda, and confirmed that Iran and Oman were in separate talks over a new procedure for ship passage through the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, Iran’s state TV said it obtained a preliminary document outlining a framework for a potential memorandum of understanding with the United States. The framework includes the withdrawal of US forces from Iran’s vicinity, while Iran would allow commercial transit through the Strait of Hormuz to return to pre-war levels within 30 days. However, US military vessels would not be covered under the draft arrangement for Hormuz, where ship traffic would be managed by Iran in coordination with Oman, according to the Iranian news report.
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