Iran parliamentary committee to discuss potential Strait of Hormuz closure: lawmaker

The Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy committee plans to hold an emergency meeting to consider retaliatory measures to the US military attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities, including a potential closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a key lawmaker said June 22.

"In this meeting, the Islamic Republic's reciprocal response to the US regime's hostile move will be reviewed and a final decision will be made about how to respond [by the committee]," Sara Fallahi, a member of the committee, told the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

The options were not limited to direct confrontations, she added.

"The Islamic Republic will definitely put on its agenda additional and multi-layered responses, including considering withdrawal from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and closure of Strait of Hormuz, which could have clear messages to the aggressor," Fallahi said.

Iran's official Press TV had earlier said the parliament had approved closing the strait, a vital maritime chokepoint in the Middle East through which some 20% of the world's oil and LNG transits daily, but that report was later withdrawn.

Any such decision would require higher level approvals, including from the Supreme National Security Council, before becoming effective. The Tasnim report did not indicate when the parliamentary national security committee would meet.

Many experts consider a prolonged Strait of Hormuz disruption less likely due to the US naval presence in the region, as well as the potentially stark impacts on Iran's own oil exports.

Iran ships nearly all its oil from its terminal on Kharg island within the Persian Gulf to its main customer China, though it has also been building a second export facility at the port of Jask on the Sea of Oman to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, which is yet to be completed.

Alternative supply routes for Middle Eastern oil and gas are limited, with pipeline capacity insufficient to offset potential maritime disruptions through the Persian Gulf and Red Sea.

Many of Iran's regional neighbors, including OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia, the world's largest exporter of crude, have called for restraint and an urgent political resolution to the conflict with Israel.

The Saudi Foreign Ministry, in a statement on X, "affirmed its condemnation and denunciation of violating the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran, expressing the need to exert all efforts to exercise restraint, de-escalate, and avoid escalation."

The US launched massive air strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities overnight, hitting sites in Fordow, Isfahan and Natansz. Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters in Istanbul on June 22 that Iran has "a variety of options" to respond, when asked if Tehran was considering shutting the Strait of Hormuz.

Araghchi was scheduled to fly to Moscow later in the day to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.