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US-Israeli strikes on Iran

US must stop its strikes, not demand that Iran open Strait of Hormuz — Lavrov

As soon as the US finishes military operations, the shipping in the Strait of Hormuz will resume normally, the Russian foreign minister noted

MOSCOW, April 3. /TASS/. The US needs to cease hostilities, not simply demand that Iran unblock the Strait of Hormuz, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference following talks with his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty.

"[US] President [Donald] Trump said the other day that 'as soon as we finish military operations,' almost all the tasks there will be resolved and ‘shipping in the Strait of Hormuz will resume normally.’ However, that means the problem isn’t simply a matter of demanding that Iran stop hostilities and then normal operations will resume in the strait," the top diplomat noted.

The United States and Israel launched a military operation against Iran on February 28. Major Iranian cities, including Tehran, were struck. The White House justified the attack by citing alleged missile and nuclear threats from Iran. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced a retaliatory operation, targeting sites in Israel. US military bases in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were also hit. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and some other key Iranian leaders were killed in the joint US-Israeli attack.

In turn, Iranian authorities decided to close the Strait of Hormuz to ships linked to the US, Israel, and countries that supported the aggression against the Islamic Republic. During the conflict, several tankers were attacked for passing through the strait without Tehran’s permission. On March 25, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced that Iran had authorized passage through the Strait of Hormuz for friendly countries, including Russia, India, Iraq, China, and Pakistan.

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Foreign policy Sergey Lavrov

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