US-Iran war latest: Tehran vows to ‘neutralize’ economic war

Tehran’s security chief vowed to “neutralize the economic war” with the United States and threatened to halt oil flow out of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s state-affiliated Press TV reported.

Iran is allowing a number of Iraqi oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, in the latest example of Tehran granting selective access to the vital waterway.

However, Rezaei, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, threatened to shut down all traffic if any of Iran’s neighboring countries enter President Donald Trump’s economic war.

Rezaei said Iran has shipped 70 million barrels of oil “in the past one or two months alone,” suggesting that was despite the US blockade of Iranian ports that resumed in mid July.

Meanwhile, the US Department of Energy said oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has averaged between 8 million and 9 million barrels per day as ships attempt “dark transits” through the waterway.

Aided by the US Navy, oil companies have chartered tankers to turn their transponders off and shuttle oil out of the Persian Gulf, through the Strait of Hormuz, to the Gulf of Oman, where they offload their crude to waiting tankers owned by their customers and then head back through the strait.