The president added that he has “instructed our Navy to seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran. No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas.”
The president added that he has “instructed our Navy to seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran. No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas.”
What? The US block the strait? First of all, they can’t, for the exact same reason that couldn’t keep it open: Iran will fuck up their ships! Second, closing the strait hurts the US more than it hurts Iran, which is why Iran closed it: maximum economic pressure. Third, what Trump is talking about now is just piracy: intercepting ships that have paid Iran for passage. The US navy doesn’t have to be anywhere near the strait for that, but it puts them in direct conflict with allies and (stronger) rivals. This is just more Trump flailing.
I’m not saying it makes sense now. I’m just saying that if they reacted quickly enough they wouldn’t allow Iran to set up toll booth and use their territorial waters to redirect traffic.
If Iran had to decide to have it completely blocked or open it would make it a less powerful card.
At this moment pretty much only Iran is expecting oil and Don Tzu even removed sanctions so they can sell their oil to anyone at market value.