Iran Threatens to Lay Mines Across Entire Persian Gulf If Coastal Attack Happens

Iran warned on March 23 that an attack on its southern coast and islands would lead to the entire Persian Gulf being cut off by sea mines, state media in Tehran reported.

“Any attempt by the enemy to attack Iranian coasts or islands will naturally, and in accordance with common military practice, cause all access routes and communication lines in the Persian Gulf and the coasts to be mined with various types of naval mines, including floating mines that can be released from the coast,” a statement from the Iranian Defense Council reads, according to the regime aligned Defa Press.

“In that case, the entire Persian Gulf will practically find a situation similar to the Strait of Hormuz for a long time. This time, along with the Strait of Hormuz, the entire Persian Gulf will be practically blocked, and the responsibility for it will lie with the threatening party.”

The Defense Council stated that non-belligerent states can only pass through the Strait of Hormuz by coordinating passage with Iran, stating that it recalled the failed attempts of more than 100 minesweepers to clear a limited number of naval mines in the area during the 1980s.

U.S. President Donald Trump has previously suggested that the United States could take out Kharg Island, Tehran’s most vital economic asset, from where 90 percent of its oil is exported.

“We can take out the island anytime we want,” he said on March 19. “I call it the little island that sits there so totally unprotected. We’ve taken out everything but the pipes. We left the pipes because to rebuild the pipes would take years for them.”

The council’s threat was built on a warning from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) on March 22 that it would move to shut down the entire Strait of Hormuz if Trump follows through with his threat to hit Iranian energy facilities if the Strait of Hormuz is not opened up.

Trump said that the U.S. military would “hit and obliterate [Iran’s] various power plants, starting with the biggest one first” if Tehran doesn’t fully open the Strait of Hormuz “without threat” within 48 hours of his social media post on March 21.

The announcement came a day after Trump suggested that the United States was “getting very close” to meeting its military objectives in the Middle East regarding Iran and would consider “winding down” the war after reaching the fourth week.

“The Strait of Hormuz will ​be completely closed and will not be opened until our destroyed power plants are rebuilt,” the IRGC said in the March 22 statement.

The IRGC stated that any companies with U.S. shares will be “completely destroyed” if Washington targets Iranian energy facilities. Energy infrastructure of nations that host U.S. military bases will be “lawful” targets, according to the statement.

Iran also threatened on March 22 to strike the energy and water facilities of its Gulf state neighbors if Trump follows through with his 48-hour ultimatum.

However, the country walked back on this threat on March 23.

“[The U.S. president] has claimed that the Revolutionary Guards intend to destroy the region’s water desalination plants and cause trouble for the people of the countries in the region,” the IRGC said in a statement, Defa Press reports.

The IRGC accused the United States of targeting a school and striking a desalination plant in Iran, stating that the IRGC had “not done such a thing so far.”

“What we have done is to announce our decision that in the event of an attack on power plants, Iran will retaliate by targeting the power plants of [Israel] and the power plants of the countries in the region that supply power to American bases, while simultaneously targeting the economic, industrial and energy infrastructure in which the Americans are shareholders,” the IRGC stated.

U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has previously said that the United States never targets civilians.

Trump, in his March 21 statement, said that the Strait of Hormuz “will have to be guarded and policed, as necessary, by other Nations who use it—The United States does not!”

“If asked, we will help these Countries in their Hormuz efforts, but it shouldn’t be necessary once Iran’s threat is eradicated. Importantly, it will be an easy Military Operation for them,” he said.

Jacob Burg contributed to this report.