Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that Iran is capable of shutting the Strait of Hormuz, but doesn’t want to do it.
"We certainly have the ability to do it, but we certainly don’t want to do it because the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf are our lifeline," Zarif said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in New York. "It has to be secured. We play a big role in securing it, but it has to be secure for everybody," the minister added.
According to Zarif, it’s dangerous because it is very crowded, who said the last time the area was this crowded, the U.S. shot down an Iranian plane with 290 passengers in 1988.
"We feel the danger and that is why we want to avoid a dangerous escalation, but we cannot give up defending our country," the Iranian foreign minister concluded.
