Over nearly two months since the US-Israel war on Iran began, Tehran has held both global shipping and the world economy to ransom.
Its de facto blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has caused one of the worst energy crises in modern times. By acting as a gatekeeper of one of the world’s most critical chokepoints, including by threatening to charge ships with transit fees, and using it as a bargaining chip in the ongoing negotiations with Washington, it has made a mockery of international law and the very idea of free navigation.
This cannot be allowed to pass.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call the strait the jugular vein of the global economy. Twenty per cent of the world’s oil and gas passes through it, along with critical shipments of petrochemicals and fertilisers. It’s little wonder that an over 90 per cent fall in maritime traffic since the war began has led to rising energy prices, disrupted supply chains and surging food costs – the worst effects of which are being felt by ordinary people globally.
Matters came to a head more than a week ago, after the US enforced its own blockade of maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports, in a bid to limit Tehran’s ability to profit from energy exports. The result was a war of words that, ultimately, prompted Tehran to close the strait on Saturday, only hours after agreeing to keep it open until the two-week ceasefire expires next week.
The human cost of Iran’s blockade was brought into sharp relief the same day, when two Indian-flagged vessels carrying crude oil were attacked while attempting to cross the strait. That these ships were fired upon while attempting lawful passage speaks volumes about the recklessness of using a global waterway as a weapon of war.
This explains why the UK and France last weekend led talks to assemble a multinational coalition tasked with resuming free navigation through the strait by reassuring commercial shipping and supporting operations to remove sea mines laid by Iran. But while the rationale behind this initiative is understandable, the effective enforcement of such a complex operation is highly questionable, not least as it could provoke clashes with Iranian gunboats patrolling the strait.
Rather than employing a maritime force, a more feasible solution would be to exert diplomatic pressure on countries that actually have an influence over Iran to persuade its leadership to adhere to international law, including treaties such as the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
For its part, Iran must know that in trying to use its control over the strait as leverage to extract concessions from the international community, it has only further isolated itself diplomatically from the rest of the world. A decision made by the UN’s maritime agency, the International Maritime Organisation, on Friday to condemn Tehran’s closure of the strait will have amounted to yet another diplomatic setback in recent weeks.
The Iranian regime needs to understand that free, unrestricted and toll-free passage for all commercial vessels is a baseline requirement of international law and civilised order – not a bargaining chip.
