Closing of Strait of Hormuz on Iran Parliament Agenda

By Staff, Agencies

A member of the Iranian Parliament said the restriction of the traffic of European commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz is on agenda as a countermeasure against the European Parliament's anti-Iran measure.

The European Parliament on Wednesday adopted an amendment calling on the EU and its member states to include the IRG in their terror list. It also passed another resolution on Thursday, calling for more sanctions against Iranian individuals and entities and putting the IRG on the EU terrorist list over alleged human rights violations during the recent riots.

Mohammad Hassan Asfari, Vice Chairman of the Internal Affairs and Councils Commission in the Parliament, said on Monday that such actions of Europe have no other output except that they create pessimism among the Iranian people.

"We will definitely not remain silent either. Closing the Strait of Hormuz is on the agenda of the parliament," he underlined as another countermeasure against the European Parliament’s call for the designation of the Islamic Revolution Guard [IRG] as a terrorist organization.

"If the Europeans are going to treat our armed forces and official forces like this [terrorists], we will also put other options on the table, including restricting the traffic of European commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz in the form of an urgent plan in the parliament," Asfari noted. "It is better for the Europeans to cancel their decision before it is too late."

Speaking on the sidelines of a closed session of the parliament on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said that “everything would be possible” if a number of European political leaders, who he called “inexperienced in diplomacy,” do not change course and rectify their mistakes.

He also said that Iran can withdraw from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons [NPT] and discharge the inspectors of the UN nuclear agency.

The majority of Iranian lawmakers also censured the European Parliament’s “wrong” decision, which they said was politically motivated and based on false information and misjudgments.

It is clear that Iran’s enemies, having failed to spread insecurity inside the country, now resort to such baseless measures in an attempt to exert political and media pressure on the Islamic Republic, the MPs said.