Strait of Hormuz ‘will if Iran wants it to,’ UK analyst says

Britain accused Iran on Thursday of holding the world’s economy hostage as diplomats from more than 40 countries held talks on ways to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route that has been choked off by the US-Israeli war against Iran. According to Associated Press the US is not attending the virtual meeting, which comes after President Donald Trump made clear that he thinks securing the waterway, closed as a consequence of the US-Israeli war on Iran, is not America’s job. Trump has also disparaged America’s European allies for failing to support the war and renewed his threats to pull the US out of NATO. David B. Roberts, reader in Middle East Security Studies at King’s College London, said international coalition-building efforts are “definitely linked to the wider Trumpian antagonism toward NATO, that other members of NATO are not pulling their weight.” “Without a doubt, this is Britain and France, notably, trying to lead the way, to very visibly show a certain sort of utility” to the Trump administration. “There’s also the very pragmatic reality that America is an oil exporter,” he added. “The immediate pressures about the fallout of the of the energy blockage in the Gulf, they fall on Europe and of course Asia, far more than America.” Iranian attacks on commercial ships, and the threat of more, have halted nearly all traffic in the waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the rest of the globe’s oceans, shutting a critical path for the world’s flow of oil and sending petroleum prices soaring. In a televised address on Wednesday night, Trump said countries that depend on oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz “must grab it and cherish it” — because the U.S. would not.

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