Tehran,Iran, 18 February (H.S.): In a provocative escalation synchronized with the second round of indirect nuclear negotiations in Geneva on Tuesday, Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps announced the unprecedented temporary closure of the Strait of Hormuz—through which 20 percent of global oil transits—for live-fire missile drills spanning several hours, citing maritime safety imperatives.

State media corroborated that Iranian forces discharged live ordnance toward the chokepoint waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman, a maneuver unprecedented since the 1980s Iran-Iraq War when Tehran mined the passage, as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued bellicose admonitions that the strongest army might receive a slap from which it cannot recover, implicitly targeting the U.S. naval armada amassed in theater.

Concurrently, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, helm of the Iranian delegation ensconced within Omani envoy Badr Albusaidi's Geneva residence, struck an incongruously sanguine chord post-parley, proclaiming a new window ajar for sustainable accord benefiting regional stakeholders, while interfacing with IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi on verification modalities.

U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner confronted Tehran's entreaties to retain domestic uranium enrichment—post-June 2025 Israeli-U.S. strikes decimating centrifuges and air defenses—amid Trump's reiterated threats of force absent curbs on near-weapons-grade stockpiles (60% purity), ballistic proscriptions, and proxy curtailments; Vice President JD Vance acknowledged partial advances yet Iranian intransigence on red lines, with Tehran pledging refined proposals within a fortnight.

Oil benchmarks plunged in response—WTI to $62.06/barrel (-1.3%), Brent to $67.03 (-2.3%)—notwithstanding prior surges from deployments like the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group transiting mid-Atlantic toward Iranian littorals, joining USS Abraham Lincoln amid Gulf Arab trepidations over conflagratory spillovers.

As Araghchi vowed reprisals transcending Iranian frontiers against aggression, the Strait's ostensible shuttering—unverified yet portentous—heralds brinkmanship atop simmering sanctions and Hormuz interdictions.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar