'Iran can easily shut Hormuz Strait'

A senior Iranian lawmaker says Tehran is well capable of closing the Strait of Hormuz if US-led Western states go ahead with plans to impose an embargo on Iran's oil industry. If an embargo is imposed on Iranian oil exports, we will certainly take measures to block oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz by other countries, said Deputy Chairman of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Esmail Kowsari on Tuesday. The global arrogance insists on using force, pressure and irrational means to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, Kowsari added. However, he emphasized, just as the global arrogance has suffered defeat facing Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan time and again, they would taste defeat this time around. On December 29, the European Union threatened to implement plans to impose new sanctions on Iran's oil industry. Michael Mann, the spokesman for the EU's Foreign Affairs chief Catherine Ashton said that the decision would be taken in the next meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on January 30, 2012. The EU foreign ministers failed in their attempts to enforce an embargo on Iran's oil exports during a December 1 meeting in Brussels. The anti-Iran threat by the EU came after the United States, Britain, and Canada imposed unilateral sanctions on the Islamic Republic's energy and financial sectors over Tehran's civilian nuclear program. Iran's First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi warned on December 27 that imposing sanctions against the country's energy sector will prompt Tehran to block oil shipments through the strategic Strait of Hormuz. “If they impose sanctions on Iran's oil, not even a drop of oil will be allowed through the Strait of Hormuz,” he added. Iran's Navy is currently conducting a massive 10- day naval drill, codenamed “Velayat 90”, in an area stretching from the east of the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Aden. Senior American officials and the Israeli regime have repeatedly threatened Tehran with the "option" of a military strike. Despite the widely publicized claims by the US, Israel and some of their European allies that Iran's nuclear program may include a military diversion, Iran steadfastly insists on the civilian nature of its nuclear program, arguing that as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.