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Iranian security chief Ali Larijani said Thursday that his country would not give up fighting until the United States came to regret the “grave miscalculation” of launching its war against the Islamic republic.
US President Donald “Trump says he is looking for a speedy victory. While starting a war is easy, it cannot be won with a few tweets. We will not relent until making you sorry for this grave miscalculation,” Larijani said on X.
Mojtaba Khamenei, Iranian supreme leader, says his country will continue to close the Strait of Hormuz to pressure Iran’s enemies.
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Khamenei spoke on Thursday in a recorded speech — his first address since succeeding his father as the country’s leader on Sunday.
On March 2, a commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the strait was “closed” and that any vessel attempting to pass through the waterway would be set “ablaze”.
Major container shipping lines suspended sailings through the strait and the Suez Canal over the escalating security risks.
At least five tankers have been damaged, two personnel killed, and about 150 ships stranded around the strait, which separates Iran and Oman.
Crude oil prices have since crossed $100 per barrel on Monday — the highest level since July 2022.
On Wednesday, Ebrahim Zolfaqari, spokesperson for Tehran’s Khatam al-Anbiya military command headquarters, said oil price will reach $200 a barrel.
He said Iran would not allow “a single litre of oil” to pass through the Strait of Hormuz for the benefit of the US, Israel, and their allies.
Donald Trump, the US president, has warned that “death, fire, and fury will reign upon them (Iran)” if they stopped the flow of oil within the passage.
Khamenei reiterated Iran’s stance in his statement.
The supreme leader added that Iran seeks good relations with its neighbouring countries but noted that all US military bases should be immediately closed in the region, or they will continue to be attacked.
He said Iran will continue fighting to avenge “the blood of our martyrs” and thanked the military for making sacrifices.
Khamenei also said plans are being made to financially support those harmed in the war.
The dollar steadied in Asian trading on Tuesday after pulling back from Monday highs, as financial markets tried to find their footing following Donald Trump’s suggestion that the US-Israeli war on Iran could be drawing to a close — a claim Iran’s Revolutionary Guards promptly dismissed as “nonsense.”
The greenback traded at 157.73 yen and $1.1632 per euro, retreating from the peaks it hit on Monday when investors piled into the currency as a safe haven amid fears that a prolonged conflict could choke off energy supplies through the Strait of Hormuz and deliver a severe shock to the global economy.
Brent crude futures were changing hands at around $93 a barrel — still well above pre-war levels but a notable retreat from the near-$120 highs reached on Monday, when the market’s anxiety was at its most acute.
The partial pullback tracked Trump’s comments that the conflict might end sooner than expected, though traders remained wary of reading too much into the statement.
Iran’s dismissal of those remarks added to the uncertainty. With the Revolutionary Guards calling Trump’s assessment groundless, analysts cautioned that markets may be pricing in an optimism that the situation on the ground does not yet support.
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“Our sense is that we haven’t seen the end of the volatility,” said Rodrigo Catril, senior currency strategist at National Australia Bank in Sydney. “There’s still the potential for events to trigger bouts of risk aversion.” Catril said it was unclear whether Tehran would have any interest in de-escalation regardless of what Washington signalled, adding that declaring an end to hostilities was unlikely to be as straightforward as it might appear.
Risk-sensitive currencies remained under pressure. The Australian dollar slipped 0.2 percent to $0.7063 while the New Zealand dollar fell 0.4 percent to $0.5912. Sterling, which had dipped sharply on Monday, recovered to hold at $1.3434.
