Iran’s steadfastness gave it global influence: Vice president 

Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref says Iran has gained a position of global influence by showing resilience against years of sanctions that deprived the country of some of its basic needs.

In a post on his X account on Monday, Aref said that Western countries are desperately trying to persuade Iran to ease its restrictions on the flow of energy through the Strait of Hormuz.

He said that those countries were once trying to dictate their policies to Iran by imposing crippling sanctions on the country.

The senior Iranian official was referring to the ongoing energy crisis in the West, which has been caused by Iran’s decision to control transit via the Strait of Hormuz since the early days of a US-Israeli aggression on the country in early February.

The restrictions on passage through Hormuz, a key waterway in the Persian Gulf which is responsible for a fifth of global oil demand, have caused international energy and commodity prices to skyrocket.

“They once refused to sell fuel to our airplanes to cripple the Iranian nation. Today, those same countries have come to the negotiating table with Iran to sustain their own energy lifelines,” Aref said in his Farsi-language post.

“This is the result of steadfastness; we have moved from a state of ‘vulnerability to sanctions’ to a position of ‘authority in supplying global needs’”.

Iranian authorities have indicated in various statements that the country would introduce a new legal regime to govern transit through the Strait of Hormuz, regardless of the outcome of the country’s current confrontation with the United States and the Israeli regime.

They say the country would charge tolls on transit via the Strait to compensate for losses suffered because of years of sanctions, sabotage, and wars imposed by Western governments and their regional allies.

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