Lawmaker Javad Karimi Qodoosi said 150 of parliament’s 290 members had signed the bill, describing the strait as “the world’s lock” to which Iran holds the key.

“If the sanctions continue, the countries that have imposed sanctions have no right to cross the Strait of Hormuz without harm,” he said. His comments were reported by the semi-official ISNA news agency Friday.

Iranian officials say the final decision is in the hands of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khomeini. Iran’s foreign minister indicated recently that such a move was unlikely.

Iranian leaders have warned that Tehran would order the closure if the country’s oil exports are blocked. On July 1, he European Union banned imports of Iranian crude, part of Western sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program which Iran insists is solely for peaceful purposes.

Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia has already taken precautionary steps against the possibility of Iran shutting down Hormuz Strait, including the reopening of an old pipeline built by Iraq to bypass the strait and export more crude via the Red Sea terminals, Reuters reported while the United States has also sent four minesweepers to the Gulf to bolster the U.S. Fifth Fleet after Iran renewed its threats for the closure of Hormuz.

“A heavy battle has begun by … enemies against the Iranian nation,” the official IRNA news agency quoted  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad  as saying on Thursday in his first major speech since a European Union oil embargo took effect this month.

“A big part of the government is working round the clock … to stand up to them,” he added. “The government will not retreat one iota from their rights, values and principles against weakening materialistic powers,” he added.

The strategic Hormuz bypass pipeline allows the UAE to pump oil and helps end the OPEC producer’s total dependence on the vital Gulf Ship route which Iran has threatened to block as western sanctions on its oil exports tighten. A European Union ban on Iranian crude imports is due to come into effect on July 1.

Escalating tensions in the Gulf region over the last year have prompted the UAE to speed up work on the long-delayed pipeline while other Gulf OPEC producers Kuwait and Qatar will continue to rely on shipping through the Strait to export fuel, according to Arabian Gazette.

Almost 17 million barrels of oil were shipped between the northern tip of Oman and the southern coast of Iran in 2011, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The 480-km pipeline with a capacity of up to 1.5 million barrels per day runs through the mountainous emirate and will reroute bulk of the country’s oil exports around the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf, the waterway for a fifth of the world’s oil supply, according to Reuters.  The UAE’s total oil exports are 2.4 million bpd.