Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader, issued a written statement read on Iranian state television on 30 April 2026 announcing "new management" of the Strait of Hormuz1. the strait is the 33km maritime chokepoint at the mouth of The Persian Gulf through which roughly a fifth of seaborne crude transits. Foreigners arriving "from thousands of kilometres away to act with greed and malice", Khamenei wrote, would have "no place in it, except at the bottom of its waters". He added that Iran's nuclear and missile capabilities are national assets that "ninety million proud and honourable Iranians will protect just as they protect the country's waters".
This is Khamenei's first substantive public declaration on Hormuz governance since taking office in March 2026. Iran's Supreme Leader communicates exclusively via written statement read on state television, citing his medical condition; the medium is the established channel rather than a downgrade of seriousness. The framing distinguishes "foreigners" from "all Gulf nations", leaving Indian, Pakistani and Chinese tanker operators a differentiated risk profile from US and European-flagged vessels.
Khamenei's text appeared the same afternoon Washington unveiled its rival framework, the Maritime Freedom Construct, for vessel transit through the same channel. The structural backdrop is the UAE's formal OPEC exit also taking effect the same week, an event that pushed Brent to a wartime settle high. Three sovereignty postures converged on the strait on 30 April.
