TEHRAN, March 30. /TASS/. Iran’s opponents have been begging Iran to negotiate the re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz, the Islamic republic’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref said.
"Our armed forces are among the world’s mightiest. We defeated the aggressors and now they have been begging us to hold talks over the Hormuz Strait. But we shall see if they are really willing to make concessions," the Iranian government quoted Aref as saying. "They must say this golden sentence `We will never attack Iran and we recognize all of Iran’s international rights’. We will see what happens next," he added.
The US and Israel launched a military operation against Iran on February 28. Major Iranian cities, including Tehran, were hit. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched retaliatory strikes against Israel and US military facilities in Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia. Iranian authorities also decided to close the Strait of Hormuz to vessels linked to the US, Israel, and countries that supported the aggression against the Islamic Republic. During the conflict, several tankers were attacked for transiting the strait without Tehran’s permission. On March 25, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced that Iran had allowed friendly countries, including Russia, India, Iraq, China, and Pakistan, to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.