Iran's joint military command warned Thursday that vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz must use its approved routes or face a "forceful response," ratcheting up further tensions over a waterway crucial to international trade.
The strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, has emerged as one of the top issues in negotiations to reach a permanent end to the Iran war.
The statement from the Khatam al-Anbiya military command, reported by Iranian state-run television, comes after both US and Iranian diplomats met with mediators in Qatar on Wednesday.
It was not immediately clear what sparked the threat from Iran. However, the US military's Central Command (CENTCOM) had put out a statement about having a meeting with officials from the region in Bahrain that said "leaders underscored their shared commitment to the free flow of commerce through the Strait of Hormuz."
That appears to have been the phrase to anger Iran, which is preparing for the funeral that begins this weekend for the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the US-Israeli strikes on Tehran in the war's opening salvo in February.
