Iran's possible closure of the Strait of Hormuz will violate the international law, a United Arab Emirates (UAE) government researcher said Thursday.

Such action will violate the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982, Abdul Latif Al Sayadi, a researcher at the National Archives of the UAE Ministry of Presidential Affairs, was quoted by state news agency WAM as saying.

The UN convention "ensures the right of transit for all countries, even within the territorial waters of other countries," said Sayadi.

The potential closure of Hormuz Strait would also be "an attack on the sovereignty of several countries, whose maritime borders fall within the area that Iran threatens to shut down," he said.

Sayadi also warned that Iran might lay mines around the strait and send submarines, suicide boats, ballistic missiles and anti-ship missiles to block the strait, the major transit route for major Gulf countries to export oil.

However, all these scenarios will lead to losses for Iran, because it cannot face the international powers, and other alternatives for exporting oil are available even if it closes the strait, such as a proposal to dig a tunnel through the UAE that will link Fujairah to Dubai without crossing the strait, he said.

Earlier last month, Iran threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, in response to the U.S. threat to ban Iranian oil exports from Nov. 4.

U.S. President Donald Trump decided to quit the landmark 2015 Iranian nuclear pact on May 8, and threatened to reimpose sanctions lifted under the accord. The U.S. has also vowed to punish the countries that have business links with Iran.