Top updates: Iran says it won’t close Strait of Hormuz, Saudi oil tanker reaches Mumbai

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:

• 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 Tehran’s opponents, benchmark Brent crude oil prices jumped above the $100-per-barrel mark once again on Friday. The oil prices have spiked by nearly 40% since Israel and the United States launched joint attacks against Iran on February 28, according to AFP.

• Meanwhile, a Liberia-flagged oil tanker that sailed from Saudi Arabia on March 3 carrying around one million barrels of...

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