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Iran’s supreme leader yesterday declared that the United States had suffered a shameful defeat, defiantly rejecting a warning from President Donald Trump that an economically punishing US naval blockade could be enforced for months to come.

Oil prices hit a four-year high, then fell back slightly, before Mojtaba Khamenei issued a written message read out on state television declaring that Iran was now in the driver’s seat in the crisis.

“Today, two months after the largest military deployment and aggression by the world’s bullies in the region, and the United States’ disgraceful defeat in its plans, a new chapter is unfolding for the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz,” he said, hailing Iran’s control over shipping in the strait.

He said US bases in the region “lack even the capacity to ensure their own security, let alone provide any hope of securing their allies.”

He went on to predict a bright future for the Gulf without the United States, saying those who interfere in the region from afar “have no place there except at the bottom of its waters”.

Khamenei was wounded in the initial US-Israeli strikes that killed his father Ali Khamenei, and has not been seen in public since being named his successor as supreme leader last month.

The United States imposed a blockade on Iran’s ports two weeks ago, while the Islamic republic has maintained its stranglehold over the strategic Strait of Hormuz since the start of the Middle East war at the end of February.

Now Washington is seeking to set up an international coalition comprising allied states and shipping firms to coordinate safe passage through Hormuz, a State Department official told AFP -- while maintaining its blockade of ships

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