Iran: Any country that takes its frozen funds can't use Strait of Hormuz

Iran said any country or business that accepts money from its frozen assets in the U.S. and Europe won’t be allowed to send its ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

Last week, President Trump proposed tapping into at least $100 billion of Tehran’s frozen funds to pay for damages to commercial ships and cargo from Iran’s decision to block the strategic waterway.

Col. Ebrahim Zolfaqari, an Iranian military spokesman, described such a move as illegal and said there would be consequences if the proposal is implemented.

“Iran’s armed forces would deny passage through the Strait of Hormuz to vessels belonging to any company or country that accepted payments from Iran’s frozen assets,” Col. Zolfaqari said Tuesday, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency.

Kurdish opposition officials blamed Iran and its proxies for launching a wave of strikes in Iraq’s Kurdistan region. At least 14 one-way suicide drones in the barrage that began the day before caused material damage but no injuries, they said.

Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said the strikes seemed to have come from the direction of Mosul, 250 miles north of Baghdad.

“In the past two or three days, some of the drones that targeted [the Kurdistan capital of Erbil] once again came from within Iraq itself,” Mr. Barzani told the Kurdish Rudaw Media Network.

He urged government officials in Baghdad to crack down on the violence against Iraq’s Kurdish population.