Iran's new supreme leader strikes a defiant note

Iran vows to keep Strait of Hormuz closed; Oil prices hit $100, again; Laundry fire on US aircraft carrier injures 2

TEHRAN:

Iran vowed on Thursday to make the United States regret launching its war against the Islamic republic, and said it would keep up its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz as oil prices soared.

The International Energy Agency warned the Middle East war could lead to "the largest supply disruption" in oil industry history, but US President Donald Trump wrote on social media that defeating Iran's "evil empire" was more important than crude prices.

Trump has faced intense political pressure as the global economic fallout of the crisis has mounted, and he has given repeated mixed messages as to when the US campaign might end.

"While starting a war is easy, it cannot be won with a few tweets. We will not relent until making you sorry for this grave miscalculation," Iranian security chief Ali Larijani said on X.

His comments came after Iran's new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, issued a defiant statement — his first since being appointed last Sunday after the death of his father and predecessor Ali Khamenei in a strike.

Mojtaba Khamenei, who was reportedly also wounded, has yet to appear publicly since his nomination, and his message calling for vengeance was read by a newscaster on state television.

"The lever of blocking the Strait of Hormuz must definitely be used," Khamenei said of the waterway through which a quarter of the world's seaborne oil trade usually transits.

The Revolutionary Guards reacted swiftly, with the force's navy commander Alireza Tangsiri saying: "In response to the order of the commander-in-chief, we will deliver the harshest blows to the aggressor" while keeping Hormuz closed.

The strait, which also normally sees the transit of a fifth of the world's liquefied natural gas (LNG), lies off Iran and is just 54 kilometres (34 miles) wide at its narrowest point.

As oil prices rose above $100 a barrel, Trump said that "of far greater interest and importance to me, as President, is stoping an evil Empire, Iran, from having Nuclear Weapons, and destroying the Middle East and, indeed, the World".

In an interview with AFP, Iran's deputy foreign minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi said Tehran was only acting in "self defence" and wanted to ensure that war could not be "imposed" on it again.

Takht-Ravanchi confirmed that Iran had been approached by some "friendly countries" to put an end to the conflict, without specifying which ones.

"We are telling them the same thing, that we want the ceasefire to be part of an overall formula for ending the war altogether," he added.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright acknowledged the US military was currently "not ready" to escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.

Authorities in Israel said 14 people have been killed, while attacks in the Gulf have killed 24 people, including 11 civilians and seven US military personnel, according to local authorities and the US Central Command.

In Iran, over three million people have been displaced by the war, according to new figures issued Thursday by the UN's refugee agency.

Iran's health ministry said on March 8 that more than 1,200 people have been killed in the war, a figure AFP has not been able to independently verify.

Also, Two crew on the USS Gerald R. Ford — the world's largest aircraft carrier currently deployed for the war against Iran — were injured Thursday in a laundry room fire, the US Navy said.

"Two sailors are currently receiving medical treatment for non-life-threatening injuries and are in stable condition," a statement from US Naval Forces Central Command said.

The Navy said the fire, originating "in the ship's main laundry," was "not combat-related and is contained."

The Navy said the Ford is now in the Red Sea as part of Operation Epic Fury — the name given to the massive US bombing assault on Iran launched by President Donald Trump on February 28.

"There is no damage to the ship's propulsion plant, and the aircraft carrier remains fully operational," the statement said.

The laundry episode was not the first mishap reported from the nuclear-powered giant, which was ordered to the Middle East right after a months-long mission in the Caribbean that culminated with the January operation by US forces to seize Venezuela's leader Nicolas Maduro.

The Ford's toilets have been plagued with malfunctions and clogging as a result of misuse by sailors, according to US media reports.