“The United States Started the War but Expects the World to Pay the Bill,” Iranian Spokesman Says

“The United States started the war, but expects the whole world to pay the bill while presenting Iran as the cause of this chaos,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said in a post on X. He accompanied the message with an image from the U.S. television series The Simpsons.

Baghaei said the Strait of Hormuz remained open until Feb. 28, when the United States attacked Iran. He accused Washington of unleashing an “illegal and brutal war” that disrupted commercial shipping, held up oil tankers, affected trade and pushed energy prices higher.

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The United States started the war, but expects the whole world to pay the bill while presenting Iran as the cause of this chaos.

Iran blocked the strait after the war began and has made the measure its main source of pressure in the conflict. Nearly all regional oil exports have been halted, while ships seeking to pass through the waterway must obtain Iranian permission. The United States has imposed a cordon around Iranian ports and vessels and, according to oil and Middle East experts cited in the report, has restored part of maritime traffic through a southern route near Oman.

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Washington unleashed an illegal and brutal war in the region, disrupting the normal flow of commercial shipping; oil tankers are stopped, trade has been affected and energy prices are rising.

Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, said Iran would announce a new “restricted zone” near the strait in the coming days. The zone would begin along the line where the U.S. naval blockade starts and extend into parts of the Persian Gulf. Vessels entering the new perimeter would be placed on a sanctions list by Tehran, he warned.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it had attacked three oil tankers traveling on “unauthorized routes” in the strait, as well as three U.S.-linked vessels elsewhere, including an aircraft carrier and a Navy destroyer. It described the attacks as retaliation for U.S. strikes on three Iranian tankers off Kharg Island. The escalation followed what Iranian authorities called Washington’s heaviest bombing of Iran in more than a month, which killed at least 19 people, including four at a wedding. Tehran then carried out strikes against U.S. military bases in Kuwait.

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That is completely absurd!