When an Iranian official this week laid out a list of demands to end the war started by the United States and Israel, he added an item that hadn’t been on Tehran’s list before: recognition of Iran’s sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.
The narrow waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) ordinarily passes has emerged as the Islamic Republic’s most potent weapon. And it is now seeking to turn into both a source of potentially billions of dollars in annual revenue and a pressure point on the global economy.
Iran has long threatened to close the strait in case of an attack, but few expected it to follow through – or for it to prove so effective in disrupting global trade flows. The scale of the impact appears to have expanded Tehran’s ambitions, with the new demands suggesting it is seeking to turn that leverage into something more durable.
Not really. You basically have to be either a superpower or a pariah state to do something like this and not be immediately pummeled into oblivion.
They could just target any ships from or to Iranian ports or of nations which support Iran with artillery or drones.
It’s exactly because it’s so stupidly easy to attack civilian ships in a space like that whilst it’s very hard to defend against it that Iran is able to do so even whilst under attack by American and Israel, so the country on the other side could do the same thing and only target Iranian or Iran-related ships.
Two can play the “fuck the other side’s ship” game there.
Exactly. 90% of Iran’s oil leave by sea, via Kharg island.
If Iran turns to piracy by threatening “pay or we sink your ships” at all other nations, then all other nations should just confiscate all Iran’s ships in return.
Oil revenues are 35% of Iran’s budget. This should not be a can of worms that Iran wants to open.