Reopening Hormuz would ease path for attacks on Iran, hardline editor says

Hossein Shariatmadari, editor of Iran’s hardline Kayhan newspaper, said on Monday that reopening the Strait of Hormuz would remove one of the main obstacles to renewed attacks on the country.

Shariatmadari said Iran’s closure of the strait and what he called Tehran’s legal sovereignty over the strategic waterway had been among the main tools that forced Iran’s adversaries to back down in the recent war.

“One of the main and most effective levers that brought the enemies of Islamic Iran to their knees in the recent war was closing the Strait of Hormuz and exercising the Islamic Republic’s legal sovereignty over this strategic waterway,” he wrote.

He also argued that control over the strait could bring Iran billions of dollars a year in transit fees from oil tankers and commercial vessels, while higher oil prices would increase Iran’s foreign currency income.