Parliament Invites Top Security, Military Officials to Discuss Shutting
Strait of Hormuz
News number: 9103085614 18:34 | 2012-07-08
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9103085614

TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior Iranian legislator announced on Sunday that the
parliament plans to invite Secretary of the Supreme National Security
Council (SNSC) Saeed Jalili as well as a number of foreign ministry and
military officials to confer on a draft bill on closing the Strait of Hormuz
to those tankers shipping crude to the countries that support sanctions
against Iran.

"In order to study the bill on the blockading of the Strait of Hormuz better
and more precisely, the SNSC secretary and a number of officials from the
foreign ministry and the General Staff of the Armed Forces will be invited
to the parliament and their views and proposals will be used," Seyed Mehdi
Moussavinejad, one of the lawmakers who has signed the draft bill told FNA
on Sunday.

"The parliament should take an all-around and insightful decision on the
Strait of Hormuz and defend the rights of the Iranian nation without any
reservations," he added.

Moussavinejad also announced that the draft bill of the parliament which
requires the government to close the Strait of Hormuz to those tankers
shipping oil to the supporters of sanctions against Iran will be submitted
to the parliament's Presiding Board late July to be put on parliament's
agenda with double-urgency to go under further discussions by all lawmakers.

Earlier this week, Iranian lawmakers warned once again that the country
would shut the strategic Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf if sanctions
against the Islamic Republic increase.

The bill was drafted by the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission
of the Iranian Parliament on Monday.

An EU embargo on Iranian oil went into effect on July 1. Tehran has
repeatedly cautioned that such measures will hurt talks with world powers
over its nuclear program.

Iran has threatened to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz at the entrance
to the oil-rich Persian Gulf if its nuclear program is targeted by air
strikes that Israel and the United States reserve as an option.

Situated between the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz
is a passageway for 40% of the world's oil production, including much of the
crude extracted in Saudi Arabia.