A vessel at the Strait of Hormuz, off the coast of Oman’s Musandam province, April 12, 2026. STRINGER / REUTERS
The military adviser to Iran's supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei on Wednesday, April 15, warned that Iran would sink American ships in the Strait of Hormuz if the United States decided to "police" the key shipping bottleneck. The US is imposing a military blockade of the Strait of Hormuz after Iran blocked shipping during over six weeks of war in a conflict which 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, told 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," he said.
Long regarded as a hardliner even within the Revolutionary Guards, Iran's ideological army, Rezaei said 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 added, without giving further details: "I am not in favor of extending the ceasefire at all and this is a personal view."
