30.4.2026
Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has called on the United States of America to pull out for the Persia Gulf as the country refuses to bulge on demands it allow free shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Ayatollah Khamenei spoke in a written statement read aloud on Iranian state television, as he has since he took over after the Feb. 28 airstrike that killed his 86-year-old father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“By God’s help and power, the bright future of the Persian Gulf region will be a future without America, one serving the progress, comfort and prosperity of its people,” Khamenei said in the statement.
“We and our neighbors across the waters of the Persian Gulf and the [Gulf] of Oman share a common destiny. Foreigners who come from thousands of kilometers away to act with greed and malice there have no place in it, except at the bottom of its waters.”
He also said that the Islamic Republic will protect its “nuclear and missile capabilities” as a national asset, even as U.S. President Donald Trump tries to get a deal on those issues.
Trump told US media outlet Axios on Wednesday that he had no intention of lifting the blockade, rejecting Tehran’s proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for an end to the US naval siege of Iranian ports.
“The blockade is somewhat more effective than the bombing,” he said. “They are choking like a stuffed pig. And it is going to be worse for them. They can’t have a nuclear weapon.” Agency reports