The Architect of Iran’s Strait of Hormuz Strategy Killed in an Israeli Air Strike

The Islamic Republic’s top naval officer and orchestrator of the Strait of Hormuz closure, Alireza Tangsiri, was killed alongside several of his lieutenants in an Israeli air strike Thursday. In a separate, unconfirmed report, Israel has scrapped a plan, for now, to kill the Iranian parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who is negotiating with American officials. The Israel Defense Force reportedly acted on American and Israeli intelligence observation of a Thursday meeting attended by top Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps naval officers, including Tsangiri, who was the IRGC navy’s commander. The meeting was conducted at the port city of Bandar Abbas, on the narrow strait at the heart of a global energy crisis. “The IDF thwarted the commander of the Navy of the Revolutionary Guards, the direct person responsible for the terrorist act of mining and blocking the Strait of Hormuz for navigation,” the Israeli defense minister, Israel Katz, said. “This is a clear message to all senior members of the Iranian terrorist organization Revolutionary Guards currently ruling Iran: The IDF will hunt and thwart you one by one. We continue to operate in Iran with full force to achieve the war objectives.”Iran has mined the Strait of Hormuz and threatened shipping in that narrow waterway, where 20 percent of the world’s oil supplies travel. President Trump made free navigation in that strait one of his top demands in negotiations for ending Operation Epic Fury.In a counter demand, Tehran officials maintain that at the end of the war Iran must have full control over who can travel through the strait. To compensate for its war losses, Tehran also demands that it would be able to levee fees on any ship traveling there. The Islamic Republic is already charging $2 million for any ship it allows out of the strait. As yet the speaker of the Iranian parliament, Mr. Ghalibaf, who is considered a top regime decision maker, has escaped the American-Israeli decapitation war strategy. Mr. Ghalibaf and foreign minister Abbas Araghchi were reportedly in the Israeli crosshairs even as the two are considered top negotiators with the Trump administration. Pakistan, which is mediating the America-Iran negotiations, asked that Mr. Trump spared the two Tehran officials, and Israel, for now, cancelled plans to kill them.

The Architect of Iran’s Strait of Hormuz Strategy Killed in an Israeli Air Strike

The Architect of Iran’s Strait of Hormuz Strategy Killed in an Israeli Air Strike

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