Iran rejects EU claims on Strait of Hormuz

TABNAK, Apr. 19 - Urging the EU to abandon its double standards, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said no international law rule prevents Iran from taking necessary measures to prevent aggressors from using the Strait of Hormuz against the country.

News ID: 7337

Date: 19 April 2026 - 14:31

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei has urged the European Union to stop using international law as a political tool, describing the bloc’s conduct as “peak hypocrisy,” as tensions continue amid the United States’ naval blockade of Iran and the Islamic Republic’s control over the Strait of Hormuz.

“Oh, that 'international law'?! The one that the EU dusts off to lecture others while quietly green-lighting a U.S.-Israeli war of aggression—and looking the other way on atrocities against Iranians?! Spare the sermons; Europe’s chronic failure to practice what it preaches has turned its 'international law' talk into peak hypocrisy,” Baqaei said Sunday in a X post, responding to an earlier post from EU Foreign Policy Chief Kaja Kallas.

In her post, the top EU official said the Strait of Hormuz must remain open under international law and called on Iran to “abandon any plan to levy transit fees.”

“No rule of international law forbids Iran, the coastal State, from taking necessary measures to stop the Strait of Hormuz being used for waging military aggression against Iran,” the spokesman said, blaming the US-Israeli war of aggression against Iran for the current situation in the Strait of Hormuz.

“And ‘unconditional transit passage’ in Hormuz? That fiction sailed the moment US/Israeli aggression brought US military assets into the strait’s backyard.”

Iran took control of the Strait of Hormuz in the early days of the war that began on February 28, as part of its response to US-Israeli attacks, banning the passage of ships belonging to adversaries and any country assisting them.

On April 8, a two-week ceasefire brokered by Pakistan took effect between Iran and the United States to allow for negotiations, partly aimed at reopening the strait. Despite the truce, US President Donald Trump imposed a blockade on Iranian ports a day later. Iran has described the blockade as a breach of the ceasefire and responded by maintaining restrictions in the strait, through which about 20 percent of global energy supplies transit.