Iran officials again threaten blockade

TEHRAN, Iran -- Senior lawmakers stepped up threats yesterday that Islamic Republic warships could block the Persian Gulf's oil tanker traffic after the latest blow by Western leaders seeking to rein in Tehran's nuclear program: a punishing oil embargo by the European Union that sharply raises the economic stakes for Iran's defiance.

The EU decision in Brussels, following the U.S. lead in targeting Iran's critical oil exports, opened a new front against Iran's leadership. Pressure is bearing down on the clerical regime from many directions, including intense lobbying by the United States urging Asian powers to shun Iranian crude, a nose-diving national currency and the recent slaying of a scientist in what Iran calls a clandestine campaign against its nuclear establishment.

Iran's lawmakers are again threatening to play one of their few, but most powerful cards: blockading the narrow Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf that is the route for a fifth of the world's oil.

A member of Iran's influential national security committee in parliament, Mohammad Ismail Kowsari, said the strait "would definitely be closed if the sale of Iranian oil is violated in any way." He went on to warn the United States against any "military adventurism."

Another senior lawmaker, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, said Iran has the right to choke off Hormuz in retaliation for oil sanctions and that the closure was increasingly probable, according to the semiofficial Mehr news agency. "In case of threat, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is one of Iran's rights," he said. "So far, Iran has not used this privilege."

Iran has often rattled world markets with such warnings, even though military experts question whether it has the naval capabilities for a blockade.

The United States and allies have already said they would take swift action against any moves to choke off the 30-mile-wide strait, where the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, along with British and French warships, entered the Gulf on Sunday without incident.

Earlier this month, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told CBS' "Face the Nation" that Iranian forces could block shipping through the strait "for a period of time," but added "we can defeat that."