In a statement released on Saturday in response to the sanctions, the PGSA said, “The US Treasury Department recently announced sanctions against the PGSA. While condemning this measure, the PGSA considers being sanctioned by a country whose president boasts of piracy as a sign of its positive performance.”
Addressing the US, the authority added, “You did not gain control over the Strait of Hormuz in the field or through diplomacy, and you will not gain it through sanctions either.”
The PGSA further stressed that despite “the United States’ tension-escalating actions in the waters of the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman,” it would continue its mission uninterrupted.
“Within the framework of facilitating maritime transit, this authority will continue without interruption to review and issue transit permits for non-hostile vessels,” the statement said.
The authority also announced that statistics covering the first month of its activities would be published in the near future.
The reaction came days after the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on the PGSA, a newly established Iranian body tasked with overseeing affairs related to the Strait of Hormuz.