Over the weekend an editorial in an Iranian newspaper funded by the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei suggested that Iran close the Strait of Hormuz to South Korean vessels until Seoul releases $7 billion in frozen funds.
"We can and must close the Strait of Hormuz to South Korean cargo ships and oil tankers and all ships that carry South Korean commodities … and not allow them to navigate through the Hormuz Strait as long as they have not paid their $7 billion debt to our country," Hossein Shariatmadari, the chief editor of Kayhan, wrote in an editorial entitled “Let’s Begin Imposing Sanctions on South Korea”.
Iran Press TV : Iran’s Kayhan newspaper warns South Korea could be blocked from accessing Hormuz Strait. https://t.co/ACzIvEXCm7
To the casual observer, this statement may simply seem like another in an endless stream of Iranian pronouncements. This is what the ayatollahs do. They rant and rave.
Unfortunately, this is much more serious than that, and it has perhaps as much to do with Beiji...