Beirut, October 13 — The Shiite militia controlling much of Lebanon offered a short message of reassurance on Monday to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps after crude oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz returned to levels last seen before the war despite Tehran’s bluster and maritime harassment, telling its patron not to dwell on the episode.
“Don’t worry,” a Hezbollah official said, speaking on condition that he be identified only as a liaison to the IRGC. “It happens to a lot of men.”
The official declined to specify which men, or what, in his view, had happened. He said the remark was meant as “normal encouragement between partners” and asked that it not be read as a comment on naval operations, export volumes, or the posture of foreign escorts in the strait. He then repeated the sentence and ended the call.
The exchange followed a run of tanker data showing crude flows through Hormuz at roughly the prewar baseline. Tracking firms put recent seven-day averages near 13.5 million barrels a day, in line with shipments before the fighting that began in late February, while refined-product movements remained below earlier levels. Iran has continued to claim authority over passage and has intensified attacks on shipping, with less-than-stellar reaction from the very bodies it has been trying to stimulate.
The Hezbollah official said the IRGC had “done what it could on the night” and that “these things are not a judgment on the relationship.” Asked whether the shipments constituted a failure to close the waterway, he said “failure” was “a strong word for a common situation.”
The IRGC did not respond to questions about the call. Iranian state outlets carried routine footage of small-boat drills and a statement that the strait remains under the supervision of the armed forces. A regional diplomat who has dealt with both parties said the wording was unusual only in its brevity. “Some issues are best addressed in private. No one is discussing anyone’s inability to sustain an election.”
Hezbollah’s media office later circulated the official’s sentence without elaboration, placing it beneath a photograph of a joint meeting from last year. A second Hezbollah figure, reached in the evening, said the organization has no plans to engage in further public discussion. “The point was made,” he said. “It happens. They know that. Everyone knows that.”
He further urged the international community to ignore the sniggering coming from the general direction of Tel Aviv.
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