Mohsen Rezaei, secretary-general of Iran's Supreme National Security Council [Reuters]
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary-general of Iran's Supreme National Security Council [Reuters]

Mohsen Rezaei, a former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander recently appointed secretary-general of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, warned Tuesday that Iran would not open the Strait of Hormuz unless the United States ends the war and returns frozen Iranian funds.

Speaking that day during a meeting with China's ambassador to Iran, Rezaei said the United States was "the source of instability in the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman," and criticized Washington for "forcing an illegal war on Iran and putting the entire region at risk."

He said the Strait of Hormuz "will never open until the United States changes its stance and accepts Iran's conditions," pressing Washington to lift sanctions and return frozen Iranian assets.

Rezaei also called for an end to all wars in the region, including those in Lebanon and Gaza, and said Iran's other conditions — conveyed to the US side through intermediaries — must also be met.

He said that even if Iran and Oman reached an agreement on passage through the Strait of Hormuz, such a deal would be "an entirely separate matter from the question of maintaining the blockade."

Rezaei was appointed commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in 1981 at the age of 27, during the Iran-Iraq War, and served in the role for 16 years until 1997.

A career military figure who led the Revolutionary Guard during the Iran-Iraq War and the period in which Iran consolidated itself as an Islamic republic, he was named SNSC secretary-general on Sunday.


mokiya@heraldcorp.com