Iran threatens pre-emptive strikes as US questions who runs Tehran

Iran's army spokesman said on Wednesday that the armed forces were prepared to carry out pre-emptive strikes in the war against the US, as senior IRGC figures claimed tighter control over the Strait of Hormuz and Washington questioned how much authority Iran's civilian leadership actually holds.

"Should circumstances require it, we will conduct pre-emptive operations down the line in order to prevent the enemy from committing any act of aggression or intrusion," spokesman for Iran's regular army Brigadier General Mohammad Akrami-Nia told the state-run IRNA news agency.

IRGC officials separately said Hormuz was firmly in Tehran's hands, despite a parallel US naval blockade of the vital waterway.

"The Strait of Hormuz is closed and the armed forces have full control over it, and this situation will continue until Iran's legitimate demands are met," Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, a senior IRGC adviser, said in a media interview.

He claimed that some vessels were using small boats to smuggle oil through the strait to larger tankers.

"Soon, a small number of the routes that violators have created by blasting and destroying some of the existing rocky passages in the Strait of Hormuz will be blocked," Naqdi said.

A second IRGC adviser, Brigadier General Amirahmadi, said international bodies had recorded an average of around 10 ships per day transiting the strait, against nearly 125 before the war that began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on 28 February.

"These ships are mainly those that pass through the waterway and designated route with the permission of the Islamic Republic of Iran," he said.