that it was playing with fire by threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz if its oil sales are cut.
Iran acknowledged receiving the letter, but seemed confused about how to react.
Initial news reports said the government had answered the letter. But officials later said they were still debating whether to respond.
Ali-Akbar Velayati, the foreign policy adviser to the Supreme Leader, said disingenuously that there was nothing new in the letter.
The point of the letter wasn’t, however, to say something new, but to make very clear to the Islamic Republic’s leadership that the United States would not treat an effort to close the strait as some minor event. There was at least the hint of military action, and possibly a blunt announcement that military action would follow any blockage of the strait.
Washington went so far as to dispatch three copies of the letter, hinting that it suspected some officials of the regime might intercept such a letter and not forward it the highest authorities. Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said one copy was delivered by Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, to Iran’s UN ambassador, Mohammad Khazaee. The second copy was delivered to the Foreign Ministry through the Swiss ambassador in Tehran, who represents US interests in Iran. The third copy was delivered by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, although Mehman-Parast did not say to whom he handed it.
President Obama has sent two or three letters previously to Khamenehi in the three years Obama has been in office in an effort to kick start direct Iran-US talks. US officials have said none of those letters has been answered.
This latest letter, however, was not part of that effort. It was purely to make clear to Iran that any effort to close the Strait of Hormuz was a “red line” for the United States, officials said.