Iran to control Gulf oil route if attacked

Tehran: The Revolutionary Guards said Iran would put controls on shipping in the Gulf oil route if Iran was attacked and warned regional states of reprisals if they took part, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

Fear of an escalation in the standoff between the West and Iran, the world's fourth largest oil producer, have been one factor propping up sky-high oil prices.

Speculation about a possible attack on Iran because of its disputed nuclear ambitions has risen since a report this month said Israel had practised such a strike.

"Naturally every country under attack by an enemy uses all its capacity and opportunities to confront the enemy," Guards commander-in-chief Mohammad Ali Jafari told Jam-e Jam newspaper.

"Regarding the main route for exiting energy, Iran will definitely act to impose control on the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz," he said.

Washington has said it wants diplomacy to end the nuclear row but has not ruled out military action should that fail.

"If there is a confrontation between us and the enemy from outside the region, definitely the scope [of the confrontation] will reach the oil issue," Jafari said.

"After this action (of Iran imposing controls on the Gulf waterway), the oil price will rise very considerably and this is among the factors deterring the enemies," he said.

Jafari warned neighbours not to let their territory be used. "If the attack takes place from the soil of another country...the country attacked has the right to respond to the enemy's military action from where the operation started," he said.

Jafari also suggested that Iran's allies in the region, including Lebanon's Hezbollah group, could also retaliate.