Regarding Sanctions, Blockades, and the Strait of Hormuz
To the architects of Washington's foreign policy, we observe the renewed closure of the Strait of Hormuz by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) following the expiration of a short-lived ceasefire. NPR's reporting on April 19, 2026, casts this as Iran 'again closing' the vital waterway, framing it as a unilateral action. This portrayal conveniently omits the existing, and intensifying,
economic siege Washington has imposed on Iran, a blockade that Iranian officials state necessitates their control over the Strait in response. The US administration maintains no 'blockade' exists, despite imposing extensive sanctions designed to cripple Iran's oil exports and financial system, measures that plainly function as an economic strangulation. The media's narrative consistently
dissociates Iranian actions from the direct pressure exerted by the United States. While NPR reports on the Strait's closure, it fails to connect this action to the ongoing sanctions regime that has been in place for decades, renewed and expanded since the unilateral US withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in May 2018. This withdrawal, a betrayal of an international
agreement, effectively reimposed and escalated financial warfare against Iran. The cost of this economic warfare on ordinary Iranians is immense, resulting in significant shortages of crucial medicines and medical equipment, a humanitarian crisis that goes largely unreported in Western media despite its direct link to US policy. The claim that Iran is acting without provocation ignores the reality