Top updates: Iran says it won’t close Strait of Hormuz

Iran said on Thursday that it will not close the Strait of Hormuz, reported Reuters. However, Tehran added that it has the “inherent right to preserve the peace and security in this waterway”.

The statement by Iran’s United Nations Ambassador Saeid Iravani came soon after the country’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said that Iran will continue blocking the Strait of Hormuz, reported BBC.

About 20% of global oil passes through the maritime chokepoint.

Here are more top updates from the conflict in West Asia:

• The bodies of 84 Iranian sailors who were killed when the warship IRIS Dena was torpedoed by a United States submarine near Sri Lanka on March 4 are being repatriated to Iran by a chartered aircraft, foreign ministry spokesperson Thushara Rodrigo told AFP on Friday. “The 32 sailors who were rescued by our navy will remain in Sri Lanka,” he added.

• Iravani told the UN on Thursday that “Iran ​fully respects and remains committed to the principle of freedom of navigation under ⁠the law of the sea”. However, the escalating tension in West Asia, including the situation in the Strait of Hormuz, was “not the result of Iran’s lawful exercise of its right of self-defence”, he added.

• As Mojtaba Khamenei had stated a day earlier that the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed to pressure...

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