US Centcom commander, admiral Brad Cooper (Photo: ANI).
The US on Friday claimed Tehran was under severe financial pressure and unable to fund its proxy militia because of the naval blockade imposed by Washington.US central command (Centcom) commander, admiral Brad Cooper, claimed the financial crunch was because the US had blocked Tehran's access to sea routes.“Iran has no exports or imports by sea. The sum total of these actions has imposed a devastating cost on Iran’s security apparatus and IRGC specifically," Cooper said."In recent months, Centcom in close coordination with US agency partners has delivered severe blows to the Islamic regime and the IRGC in three important areas,” he added.
Centcom claimed Tehran lost $25 billion since the blockade affected oil exports.Additionally, the US claims to have frozen Iran's $350 million in cryptocurrency, ANI reported.Iran's "proxy militia" includes members of the Axis of Resistance, a network of Iran-aligned governments and armed groups in the Middle East that oppose Israel and US military influence in the region. Its principal members and partners include Iran, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Palestinian territories, among others.
The Centcom commander said Iran was facing shortages across several sectors, including energy and oil, steel and heavy industry, manufacturing, automotive, aviation, construction, security and the military.He asserted US dominance over the Hormuz region.“In seven days alone, 400 ships have sailed through the Strait. US has also assisted Gulf partners in shipping over 100 million barrels of crude oil during the same period, adding to more than 1.3 billion barrels we have helped allies to ship in the recent months,” Cooper said.The claim came amid competing assertions of control over the strategic waterway. On Friday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said an “illegal supertanker” carrying more than two million barrels of crude oil had been struck by a sea mine while attempting to cross what it described as the “unauthorised” Strait of Hormuz.Iran’s ISNA news agency reported that the incident triggered an explosion and a severe fire. According to the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) weekly review, 135 such incidents have occurred in the Strait amid the Iran-US conflict.