Iran on Monday threatened to launch an 'economic war' by halting oil exports from the Strait of Hormuz, lodging strong protest over US President Donald Trump's claims on the critical waterway through which nearly one-fifth of global crude transits

It also warned countries against backing the United States in its war against Iran that has been ongoing for more than five months.

"If the economic war continues, not a single drop of oil will be exported٫ neither through the Strait of Hormuz nor from anywhere in the Persian Gulf. Iran will regard any country’s participation in or support for America’s economic war against the Iranian people as an act of war," Mohsen Rezaei, the hardline leader of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Secretary, said on X (previously Twitter).