Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf challenged the US naval blockade with a sharp geographical rebuke and a unit conversion lesson for the Pentagon.
Qalibaf has publicly ridiculed the United States naval blockade imposed on Iran, arguing that the sheer scale of the country’s borders makes any attempt to seal it off a geographic impossibility.
In a post on X, Qalibaf compared Iran’s geography to a hypothetical situation in the United States, suggesting the construction of two long walls, one stretching from New York City to the West Coast and another from Los Angeles to the East Coast. He claimed that even such a scenario would fall short of Iran’s total border length.
“If you build two walls, one from NYC to the West Coast and another from LA to the East Coast, the total length will be 7,755 km, which is still about 1,000 km short of Iran’s total borders,” he wrote, adding, “Good luck blockading a country with those borders.”
He also directed a pointed note to US War Secretary Pete Hegseth, writing, “P.S. For Pete Hegseth: 1 km = 0.62 mi.”
Iran’s land and maritime borders stretch more than 8,700 kilometres, including coastlines along three distinct bodies of water, the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the Caspian Sea, giving it one of the most complex perimeters in the region.
The remarks came after the United States imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports following the the US-Israeli war with Iran on February 28. Tehran has repeatedly condemned the move as illegal, calling it a violation of a fragile ceasefire reportedly brokered by Pakistan.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian also warned on Thursday that the blockade amounts to an extension of the war, saying it would not be tolerated.
