This illustrated photo taken on March 5, 2026 in Krakow, Poland, shows a MarineTraffic map showing current shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz displayed on a laptop screen and the MarineTraffic logo displayed on a mobile phone screen.
Jakub Porzycki | Null Photo | Getty Images
Oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz “need to exercise extreme caution,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson warned on Monday.
Spokesman Esmail Baghaei also defended Iran’s attacks on Gulf states, telling CNBC’s Dan Murphy that targeting U.S.-owned “military bases and assets” in the region is “legal under international law.”
With the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed, oil prices have soared to more than $100 per barrel.
“As long as the situation remains unstable, I think all tankers, all maritime navigation needs to be done with extreme caution,” said Bagai, who is also director of the Center for Public Diplomacy.
He said Iran intends to fight the United States and Israel “for as long as necessary” and that Iran is preparing for all possible scenarios, including the possibility of a ground invasion.
Baggaei predicted that Iran would “unite” around the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who was elected over the weekend to succeed his father, Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the US-Israel war against Iran.
“The state institutions, the people and the authorities have all shown solidarity behind the new leadership,” Bagai said.
He rejected US President Donald Trump’s suggestion that the US should have some say in choosing Iran’s leader.
“I think it is a fundamental principle of international law and decency that states should make their own decisions without foreign interference,” Bagai said. “It is the absolute and sole right of the Iranian people to decide on their own leadership and system, and I think it is absolutely illegal for politicians or anyone outside Iran to say who should govern Iran.”
Asked why Iran targeted Gulf states, attacking a desalination plant in Bahrain, an oil refinery in Saudi Arabia and civilian infrastructure in the United Arab Emirates, Baghai said: “We are simply defending our country from an aggressor.”
“What we are doing against the military bases and assets of our aggressors in this region is legal under international law,” he said. “We defend ourselves under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, and all military bases, installations and assets used in any form or manner to support an aggressor are considered legitimate targets.”
