Iran supreme leader’s adviser threatens to sink US ships in Hormuz strait

The military adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei warns that Iran will sink American ships in the Strait of Hormuz if the United States decides to “police” the key shipping bottleneck.

The US is imposing a military blockade of the Strait of Hormuz after Iran blocked shipping for over six weeks during a conflict that is on hold as a fragile two-week ceasefire remains in place.

“Mr Trump wants to become the police of the Strait of Hormuz. Is this really your job? Is this the job of a powerful army like the US?” Mohsen Rezaei, a former commander-in-chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards who was named as a military adviser by Khamenei last month, tells state TV.

“These ships of yours will be sunk by our first missiles and have created a great danger for the US military. They can definitely be exposed to our missiles and we can destroy them,” Rezaei, wearing his military uniform, tells the state broadcaster.

Long regarded as a hardliner even within the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army, Rezaei says it would be “great” if the United States launched a ground invasion of Iran as “we would take thousands of hostages and then for each hostage we would get a billion dollars.”

He also adds, without giving further details: “I am not in favor of extending the ceasefire at all, and this is a personal view.”

A veteran and high-profile figure in Iran, Rezaei headed the Revolutionary Guards from 1981 to 1997.