"Iran has effectively proven that it dictates the terms of passage through the strait. They have now shown they are the gatekeeper of this important chokepoint. This will elevate the status of Iran in the geography of the Gulf, said Andreas Krieg, an associate professor in Security Studies at King's College London and a fellow at King's Institute of Middle Eastern Studies."
"After US-Israeli strikes on Iran began on February 28 and killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the Iranian military leadership responded by focusing on its most potent form of leverage—Iran's geography. The country controls the northern shore of the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of global crude oil and natural gas supplies pass."
"Considering insurance companies' low appetite for risk, it took relatively few attacks on vessels in the strait—or just the threat of them—to undermine market confidence and send insurance premiums shooting up, causing a near paralysis in maritime traffic."
Following U.S.-Israeli strikes that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on February 28, Iran leveraged its geographic control of the Strait of Hormuz to establish itself as the gatekeeper of global energy supplies. The strait, only 33 kilometers wide at its narrowest point, carries 20 percent of global crude oil and natural gas. Iran's military responded by targeting vessels, causing insurance premiums to spike and maritime traffic to nearly halt. Approximately 20 vessels have been attacked since the war began. Rather than joining Trump's proposed naval coalition to open the strait, countries are negotiating safe passage directly with Iran. Crude oil prices have exceeded $100 per barrel, representing a 20 percent increase from pre-war levels, while gas prices rose over 40 percent. Iran has effectively established itself as the dominant force controlling access to this critical chokepoint.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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