US warns Iran against closing key oil passage

TEHRAN, Iran — The U.S. strongly warned Iran on Wednes­day against clos­ing a vital Per­sian Gulf water­way that car­ries one-sixth of the world’s oil sup­ply, after Iran threat­ened to choke off traf­fic through the Strait of Hor­muz if Wash­ing­ton imposes sanc­tions tar­get­ing the country’s crude exports.