The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the Mediterranean Sea could be closed if the United States and its allies “continue committing atrocities” in Gaza, Iranian media reported Saturday, without specifying how that would happen.
Iran supports Hamas in its war against Israel and accuses the United States of supporting what it calls Israeli atrocities in Gaza, where weeks of bombardment have killed thousands and displaced most residents from their homes.
“They will soon witness the closure of the Mediterranean Sea, the Strait of Gibraltar and other waterways,” said Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, Commander of the Guard, reports the semi-official news agency Tasnim.
Yemen’s Iran-linked Houthi group attacked merchant ships sailing through the Red Sea last month in retaliation for Israel’s attack on Gaza, prompting some shipping companies to change routes.
The White House said Friday that Iran is “deeply involved” in planning operations against commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
Iran does not have direct access to the Mediterranean itself and it is not clear how the Guard could try to close it, although Naqdi spoke of “the birth of new resistance forces and the closing of other waterways”.
“Yesterday, the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz became a nightmare for them, and today they are trapped in the Red Sea,” the agency quotes the statement of Naqdi.
The only groups supported by Iran in the Mediterranean are the Lebanese Hezbollah and the allied militia in Syria, reports NY Post.
