TEHRAN -- A senior Iranian lawmaker called on Sunday for Iran to close energy routes to all nations, saying the country must either block energy exports entirely or not at all, as he hit out at regional states for aiding U.S. pressure while claiming friendship with Tehran.
“With power and authority, the Islamic Republic of Iran must close energy to everyone — all or no one,” Hamidreza Haji-Babaei, vice president of Iran’s parliament, said in a virtual parliamentary session. 
“This is the fundamental demand of the great Iranian nation, and any shortfall in this action will certainly be a loss for our people.”
The remarks came in a pre-agenda speech that opened with Haji-Babaei invoking Qur’anic imagery to condemn U.S. President Donald Trump’s address to the United Nations. He compared Trump to the Pharaoh, citing the Qur’anic account of a ruler who claimed the power to kill and revive at will.
“That same Pharaoh, the highest power, was destroyed by a people who had no power comparable to Pharaoh’s, but they became God’s whip upon Pharaoh’s head,” he said. 
“Does it not occur to us that the Strait of Hormuz is that same sea and that same river in which Pharaoh was drowned?”
Haji-Babaei said Iran has failed to act decisively against America’s blockade. “Every day that passes, America seeks more blockade. We must break America’s blockade from the very point where its defeat is certain — energy.”
He said some regional countries are using shadow vessels, ship-to-ship transfers, and pipelines bypassing the Strait of Hormuz to help the U.S. escape its predicament, warning that “anyone who exports energy in any way to bring Trump out of the quagmire and reduce his pressures is at war with Iran.”
Turning to the regional situation, the lawmaker marked the second anniversary of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah’s assassination, declaring Iran’s support for Hezbollah and Lebanon. 
“The resistance that supported us at every moment — we will always support it.”
He also warned regional states that “any resistance against Iran and any support for America will increase their distance from the people,” adding that “until America is present, this region will not see security.”