Just over half of Iran’s parliament has backed a draft law to block the Strait of Hormuz, a lawmaker said yesterday, threatening to close the Gulf to oil tankers in retaliation against European sanctions on Iranian crude.

The assembly has little say in defence and foreign policy, where Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the last word, but the law would lend political support to any decision to close the strait - a threat that Iran’s foreign minister recently played down.

Lawmaker Javad Karimi Qodoosi said 150 of parliament’s 290 members had signed the bill, describing the strait as “the world’s lock” to which Iran holds the key.

“If the sanctions continue, the countries that have imposed sanctions have no right to cross the Strait of Hormuz without harm,” the Iranian Students’ News Agency quoted Qodoosi as saying.

A heavy Western naval presence in the Gulf and surrounding area is a big impediment to any attempt to block the vital shipping route through which 40% of the world’s seaborne oil exports pass. Qodoosi dismissed this obstacle.

“From a military standpoint, the power to close the Strait of Hormuz is 100% there ... if we close the Strait of Hormuz, no country will be able to open it.”

Iranian threats to close the shipping channel have multiplied in response to sanctions placed on its crude exports by Western powers. The European Union banned imports from July 1 and non-EU Turkey has slashed purchases.

The sanctions were imposed over Iran’s nuclear programme, which the West suspects is aimed at creating an atomic weapon and Tehran says is for peaceful energy purposes.
Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said earlier this month Iran was unlikely to follow through on the treat to close the strait.

“Probably those who have suggested this idea have in mind that if Iran is denied access to the Gulf for whatever reason ... then Iran will probably react appropriately ... But I don’t think such a time will ever come,” he said.

lIsraelis remain mostly opposed to any unilateral attack by their country on Iran even if international diplomatic pressure fails to curb its nuclear programme, an opinion poll suggested yesterday.

The survey commissioned by Maariv newspaper found only 19% of Israelis would support the go-it-alone strikes threatened by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conservative government, while 26% thought military action should be taken - but only with US backing.

Twenty-nine percent said the Jewish state should not attack at all, according to the poll, which asked what it should do if foreign sanctions do not deny Iran the means to make a nuclear bomb. Twenty-six percent said they did not know the answer.

The findings were largely similar to those of a survey published in March before the US and five other world powers relaunched negotiations to try and rein in Iranian uranium enrichment.

The talks have not borne fruit and Israel has accused Tehran of using them to buy time. Washington, which has not ruled out military force against Iran but has come out against the prospect of Israel launching a unilateral war, said this week both allies were “on the same page”.

The Maariv poll had 506 respondents and a 4.5% margin of error.

Israel, which is believed to have the region’s only atomic arsenal, says a bomb in its arch-foe’s hands could threaten its existence.

But Israeli forces would face big hurdles in taking on Iran’s distant, dispersed and well-defended nuclear sites, and in fending off likely reprisals from Tehran and its allies.