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Regionally, the implications of his remarks are immediate. The Strait of Hormuz remains one of the world’s most important energy chokepoints, and any sustained effort by Iran to keep it closed or to treat it as a recurring instrument of wartime leverage would reverberate through oil markets, shipping routes and the military posture of Gulf Arab states. Reuters reported that from the opening day of the conflict Iran warned that the passage, through which around a fifth of global oil consumption passes, had been closed, while airlines also cancelled flights across parts of the Middle East. Mojtaba Khamenei’s first statement suggested that Tehran still sees disruption of the regional order as a viable pressure tactic and that it is prepared to threaten not only Israel and the United States but also neighbouring states that host U.S. forces.
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