Iran Military Vows To Prevent Crude Oil Export From Middle-East Amid Global Price Surge

Iran has warned that no crude oil will be allowed to leave the Middle-East if military attacks by the United States and Israel continue.

The country’s elite military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), issued the warning on Tuesday, saying it would not permit “one litre of oil" to be shipped from the Middle-East if the attacks persist.

This comes as global markets closely monitor the strategic Strait of Hormuz,which has effectively been shut since the beginning of the conflict.

The Strait of Hormuz serves as key maritime corridor through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passes.

The statement prompted a swift response from U.S. President Donald Trump, who warned that Washington would respond with overwhelming force if Iran attempted to disrupt energy shipments through the vital waterway.

“We will hit them so hard that it will not be possible for them or anybody else helping them to ever recover that section of the world," Trump said at a news conference on Monday.

The U.S. president suggested the war might conclude well before the four-week timeline he initially projected.

Trump said on Monday the United States had inflicted serious damage on Iran's military and predicted the conflict would end well before the initial four-week time frame he had laid out, though he has not defined what victory would look like.

Israel has stated that its objective in the war is to overthrow Iran’s clerical leadership system, while U.S. officials have largely framed Washington’s goals as dismantling Iran’s missile capabilities and nuclear programme. Trump, however, has suggested the war would only end once Iran has a government willing to cooperate with the United States.

Iranian officials rejected Trump’s remarks, insisting Tehran would decide how the war concludes. A spokesperson for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said, “We are the ones who will determine the end of the war.”