US Vows To Keep Gulf Waterway Open After Iran Threatens Blockade

• US Vows To Keep Gulf Waterway Open After Iran Threatens Blockade
  by Tyler Durden, https://www.zerohedge.com/
  As Americans are busy with July 4th celebrations, the temperature is heating up in the Persian Gulf a day after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani suggested Iran could stop all regional gulf oil exports in retaliation for the US seeking to collapse the nuclear deal, and in response to aggressive new US sanctions. 
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  “The Americans have claimed they want to completely stop Iran’s oil exports. They don’t understand the meaning of this statement, because it has no meaning for Iranian oil not to be exported, while the region’s oil is exported,” the state-run website, president.ir, quoted Rouhani as saying. “The Americans say they want to reduce Iranian oil exports to zero… It shows they have not thought about its consequences,” Rouhani said. 
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  After the provocative Iranian statements, widely understood as a threat to impose military blockade on the world’s most crucial oil choke point, spokesman for the US military’s Central Command, Captain Bill Urban, told the Associated Press on Wednesday that US sailors and its regional allies “stand ready to ensure the freedom of navigation and the free flow of commerce wherever international law allows”.
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  Washington has issued an ultimatum to countries dealing with Iran: halt all imports of Iranian oil from Nov. 4 or face punitive US economic measures with no exemptions.Rouhani called these threats “crime and aggression” and an act of “self-harm” as the unwavering stance is “against U.S. national interests and the interests of other countries.” He said this while in Vienna attempting to rally European governments to stand against Trump’s policies targeting Tehran. 
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