Supreme leader's adviser says Iran has legal claim to Hormuz

Mohsen Rezaei, military advisor to Iran's supreme leader, said this Sunday (24) that managing the Strait of Hormuz is Tehran's "legal right" to guarantee national security.

"Iranian administration of the Strait of Hormuz ends 50 years of insecurity in the Persian Gulf," Iranian agencies quoted Rezaei as saying.

Rezaei also stated that Iran could withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty if threatened.

"If you decide to attack the Strait of Hormuz and enter the Persian Gulf, first of all you will face an exceptionally difficult and painful response. ...But more importantly, I tell you that we will be able to withdraw from the NPT (Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons). Do you know what that threat means? What will happen to you if we withdraw from the NPT? So, abandon that path," he said.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly highlighted the prospect of an agreement to end the war that began between the US and Israel on February 28.

According to him, negotiations were progressing and the US relationship with Iran had become more professional and productive. But he added: "Both sides need to take their time and get it right. There can be no mistakes!"

A day earlier, Trump said Washington and Tehran had "extensively negotiated" a memorandum of understanding for a peace agreement that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, through which, before the conflict, a fifth of global shipments of oil and liquefied natural gas passed.

The two sides continue to differ on a number of difficult issues, including Iran's nuclear ambitions, Iranian demands for the lifting of sanctions and the release of tens of billions of dollars in Iranian oil revenues frozen in foreign banks, and Israel's war in Lebanon against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

Get to know the Shahed-136 kamikaze drone, used by Iran in the war

Source: CNN