Iran can easily close a key Gulf shipping route if it were attacked over its nuclear programme, the head of the Revolutionary Guards was quoted as saying on Monday, a move that could choke off world oil exports.
The statement by commander-in-chief Mohammad Ali Jafari was likely to fuel tension over Tehran's disputed atomic ambitions, coming shortly after Iran again said it would press on with nuclear work the West suspects is aimed at making bombs.
Military analysts say the United States could unleash vastly superior firepower against Iran, but say the Islamic Republic could hit back against Washington's forces in Iraq and by disrupting oil supplies vital to the world economy. Iran's armed forces have "the possibility of closing the Strait of Hormuz, easily and on an unlimited basis," state radio quoted Jafari as telling a news conference.
As well as threatening to shut the Strait of Hormuz, Jafari said the elite Guards force had tested a naval weapon that could destroy any vessel in a range of 300 km (190 miles), media said. Iran's recent missile tests rattled oil markets.
About 40 percent of world oil exports passes through the Strait of Hormuz, a choke point at the southern end of the Gulf, flanked by the coastlines of Iran and Oman. Much of it goes to Asia, the United States and western Europe.
"In view of the proximity of the Strait of Hormuz ... to our shores, this distance is within the range of an assortment of weapons and its closure for us is very feasible and we face no limitations from the point of view of time," Jafari said. The US military has pledged to keep the Strait open. Andrew Brookes of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a think-tank in London, doubted Iran would want to close a shipping lane through which it exported its own oil.
"I think it has the ability to cause severe disruption in the Gulf," Brookes said. "But the West led by the US would respond so forcefully that Iran would find that its ports and ships were hit in such a fashion that the disruption would not continue," he said.