A police officer stands guard in front of a banner with portraits of the late Iranian revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, left, and late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a state-organised rally celebrating the birthday of Imam Reza, the 8th Shiite Muslims' Imam, and supporting the supreme leader, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
The Iranian supreme leader on April 30 said the only place Americans belong in the Persian Gulf is “at the bottom of its waters,” as the Strait of Hormuz remains in Tehran’s chokehold.
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei spoke in a written statement read aloud on Iranian state television, as he has since he took over after the Feb. 28 airstrike that killed his 86-year-old father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“By God’s help and power, the bright future of the Persian Gulf region will be a future without America, one serving the progress, comfort and prosperity of its people,” Khamenei said in the statement.
“We and our neighbors across the waters of the Persian Gulf and the [Gulf] of Oman share a common destiny. Foreigners who come from thousands of kilometers away to act with greed and malice there have no place in it, except at the bottom of its waters.”
He also said that the Islamic Republic will protect its “nuclear and missile capabilities” as a national asset, even as U.S. President Donald Trump tries to get a deal on those issues.
“Ninety million proud and honorable Iranians inside and outside the country regard all of Iran’s identity-based, spiritual, human, scientific, industrial and technological capacities, from nanotechnology and biotechnology to nuclear and missile capabilities, as national assets, and will protect them just as they protect the country’s waters, land and airspace,” Khamenei said.
His statement came as Iran warned the United States that its naval blockade was doomed to fail, after Trump signaled it could be enforced for months to come, in a confrontation wreaking havoc on global energy markets.
Oil prices soared to a four-year high, with Brent crude for June delivery up 7.1 percent to more than $126 dollars a barrel, and Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian responded with a warning that the action would only further destabilize the region.
"Any attempt to impose a maritime blockade or restrictions is contrary to international law... and is doomed to fail," Pezeshkian said, in a statement that warned the blockade that began on April 13 would be "a disruption to lasting stability in the Persian Gulf.”
