Iran's navy commander who oversaw Strait of Hormuz blockade 'is killed in Israeli strike'
Iran's navy commander who oversaw the Strait of Hormuz blockade has been killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced Alireza Tangsiri's death in a video statement on Thursday.
He said: 'Last night, in a precise and lethal operation, the IDF eliminated the commander of the Revolutionary Guards' navy, Tangsiri, along with senior officers of the naval command.
'The man who was directly responsible for the terrorist operation of mining and blocking the Strait of Hormuz to shipping was blown up and eliminated.'
The strait is one of the world's most crucial oil chokepoints, with roughly a fifth of global energy supplies passing through the narrow waterway each day.
Since the start of the joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28, Israel has announced the killing of several top Iranian officials, including supreme leader Ali Khamenei and the Islamic republic's powerful security chief, Ali Larijani.
In recent days, Israeli forces have carried out several strikes targeting the naval assets of Iran.
Last week, Israeli airstrikes hit several Iranian naval ships in the Caspian Sea, including ones equipped with missile systems, support vessels and patrol craft.
Iran's navy commander who oversaw the Strait of Hormuz blockade has been killed in an Israeli airstrike
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz announced Alireza Tangsiri's death in a video statement on Thursday. Pictured: Cargo ships in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz
Since the outbreak of war, Iran has moved to restrict access through the Strait of Hormuz, with reports of shipping being blocked, diverted or forced to seek clearance, particularly vessels linked to the US and its allies.
The ongoing shutdown has proved disastrous for global energy and trade flows, pushing Brent crude prices to their highest levels in nearly four years - at one point reaching nearly $120 a barrel.
It comes as Iran has responded to Trump's 15-point peace plan with a list of its own demands, including calling for the closure of US bases in the Middle East and a new toll for Strait of Hormuz shipping.
Washington sent Tehran the plan - modelled on Trump's Gaza deal - to end the crisis in the Middle East, highlighting the White House's eagerness to find an offramp from the war as it wrestles with its economic fallout.
It is unclear how widely the plan, delivered via Pakistan, had been shared among Iranian officials, with the regime sternly denying a peace process is taking place following comments from Trump that Tehran wants a deal 'so badly'.
Public statements aside, Iran has let the Trump administration know it has a high-bar for re-entering a ceasefire deal, including the closure of all American bases in the Gulf and reparations for attacks on the country.
According to the Wall Street Journal, other demands include a new order for the Strait of Hormuz, that would allow Tehran to collect fees from ships that transit the Persian Gulf channel, as Egypt does now with the Suez Canal.
The regime wants it to be guaranteed that the conflict wouldn't restart and an end to Israel's attacks on the Iran-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah.
It has also demanded a lifting of all sanctions on Iran, and for the country to retain its missile programme, with no negotiations to limit it.
According to the Journal, a US official called the demands 'ridiculous and unrealistic'.
The posturing will make reaching a resolution with the Islamic Republic harder than before Trump started the war, Arab and US officials said.
While the US President claimed on Tuesday that Tehran gave Washington a 'very big present worth a tremendous amount of money', an Iranian military spokesman insisted that the US is 'negotiating with itself', adding: 'Someone like us will never come to terms with someone like you.'
Israel and the US have pummelled Iran's ballistic missiles, launchers and production facilities, as well as its nuclear programme in the bombing campaign that began on February 28, with leaders vowing never to allow the regime to possess a nuclear weapon.
In terms of Washington's demands on Iran, Israel's Channel 12 reported that the 15-point plan includes the pledge that nuclear facilities at Natanz, Isfahan, and Fordow must be taken out of use and destroyed.
It also calls for transparency and oversight by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over activities in Tehran, as well as the promise that the regime will abandon the use of armed proxies in the region, and stop its funding and arming of regional allies.
Iran would have to dismantle its existing nuclear capabilities that have already been accumulated, and commit to never striving to achieve nuclear weapons again.
Under the plan, all enriched material must be handed over to the IAEA, and no nuclear material will be enriched on Iranian soil.
Meanwhile, the Strait of Hormuz will remain open and constitute a 'free maritime zone'.
