Iranian vice president said the country will retaliate if its oil facilities are targeted using what he dubbed an “eye for a head” strategy.
Reza Aref said: “We will target the attackers’ oil facilities in the event of an attack on oil wells… Our country’s response to any potential attack will be more than ‘an eye for an eye.’ The first step of the ‘an eye for an eye’ strategy has been used, but if the enemy makes a mistake again, our strategy will be an ‘eye for a head'”.
The strikes came just a day after Trump extended a two-week ceasefire while maintaining an American blockade of Iranian ports.
The ongoing standoff between the US and Iran has effectively strangled nearly all exports passing through the strait, through which 20% of the world’s traded oil flows during peacetime, and there is no resolution in sight.
Iran’s seizure of the ships didn’t violate truce terms because “these were not US or Israeli ships, these were two international vessels,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Channel.
Mr Trump extended the two-week ceasefire with Iran earlier this week, and added he is in no rush to strike a deal with the country. His announcement was followed by Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz. But the regime then started barring the passage of vessels again after Mr Trump said the US blockade would not end during the ceasefire.
Mr Trump has been accused of repeatedly pushing back deadlines he had set. In one instance, on Easter Sunday, he threatened to hit bridges and power plants in Iran should the country not open the Strait of Hormuz to all vessels, he called off the strike just hours before the deadline.
A local Iranian news outlet on Tuesday reported that the adviser to Iranian Parliament Speaker Ghalibaf has said that Trump’s ceasefire extension is “certainly a ploy to buy time for a surprise strike,” adding: “The losing side cannot dictate terms.”
A state media also reported that the country had not requested an extension of the ceasefire.
