Hormuz never open until Iran’s conditions met: IRGC

TEHRAN, Oct 29: Iran’s IRGC spokesperson Hossein Mohebi says the crucial waterway for global trade will remain closed until Iran’s demands are fulfilled by the United States.

“The Strait of Hormuz is today under the strategic control of the Iranian armed forces and will never be opened until the Islamic Republic’s conditions are fully met,” Mohebi was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency.

The “enemy” tried to destroy Iran’s nuclear and missile capabilities, but the US’s “hidden goal” is to ensure the “Greater Israel”plan comes to fruition, Mohebi added.

The spokesman for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has challenged the US military’s insistence that it has fully cleared the Strait of Hormuz of sea mines.

Brigadier-General Hossein Mohebi told US Central Command (CENTCOM) to “prove Hormuz’s de-mining claim with independent evidence, not a statement”.

“The reality of the Strait of Hormuz takes place in the sky, land and sea �" not in cyberspace and American media war rooms,” Mohebi said in a post. The comments came after the IRGC Navy said three energy tankers caught fire after sailing into mines in the strait.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards say they have captured a US “spy and deception” drone west of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s IRNA news agency is reporting.

In a statement, the IRGC Navy said fighters from its Electronic Warfare Unit “succeeded in safely landing an American terrorist army spy and deception drone (MQM-170) west of the Strait of Hormuz”.

“The mission of this drone was to identify the air defence systems of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the coastal strip of the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz,” it added.

“Based on the information retrieved from this aircraft by the IRGC Navy specialists, it was determined that the origin of the flight of this aircraft was on the coast of one of the countries on the southern edge of the Persian Gulf.”�"AL JAZEERA