Iran’s Parliament took a step closer to formalizing its management over the Strait of Hormuz, the head of its National Security Foreign Policy Committee announced Wednesday, in a move that could further weaken a ceasefire between Washington and Tehran.
Committee Chairman Ebrahim Azizi told state-affiliated media that Iran aimed to use the strait as a “power-building lever” even after the war is over and that recent parliamentary moves are intended to create a legal framework for that strategy.
“A plan for managing the Strait of Hormuz has reached a final conclusion in the commission and has been uploaded to Parliament’s system for review and approval,” Mr. Azizi said. “The Islamic Republic of Iran wants to use this geographic capacity as a source of leverage.”
Mr. Azizi did not provide further details on what Iran’s postwar management of Hormuz would look like, and the full Parliament would need to vote on the measure before it’s signed into law.
Iran has maintained an effective blockade on all Western-linked ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz since early March. The blockade has throttled global energy markets, with hundreds of ships and millions of barrels of oil trapped in the Persian Gulf.
Crude oil futures sat at $83 a barrel on Wednesday, about $20 above where they were before the Iran war began in late February.
International leaders, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have rejected the idea that Iran can maintain control over the strait after hostilities cease and have called the Islamic republic’s blockade a violation of international law.
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