Iran keeps Strait of Hormuz blocked, and threatens another key waterway
Iran has a stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, and as pressure mounts, it's threatened to target another vital Middle East shipping lane, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps has declared the Strait of Hormuz — a waterway through which around 20% of the world's crude oil supply flowed until the war — closed to any ships not explicitly granted permission by Tehran, warning of a severe response for any violators.
The global price of crude oil jumped over $110 a barrel on the news Friday. Before the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Iran one month ago, a barrel of benchmark Brent crude was trading at just over $70 a barrel.
The IRGC Navy appeared to make an example of three Chinese-owned commercial vessels this week that tried — but failed — to make it through the strait and out of the Persian Gulf.
"This morning, following the false statements of the corrupt U.S. president claiming that the Strait of Hormuz is open, three container ships of different nationalities moved toward the designated corridor for authorized vessel traffic, but were turned back after warnings from the IRGC Navy," the Iranian military said in a social media post.
Early Friday morning, data from the MarineTraffic website showed that two ultra-large container ships owned by China's biggest shipping company, COSCO, made a sharp U-turn after apparently trying to sail past Iran's Larak Island. The two ships, CSCL Indian Ocean and CSCL Arctic Ocean, remained in the Persian Gulf later Friday.
A third ship, the Hong Kong-owned Lotus Rising, was forced to make a similar turnaround further out from the same island the previous day.