Iran has announced that the Strait of Hormuz has been completely closed to all oil tankers and commercial ships in response to recent US strikes on the country, and stated any vessel attempting to pass would be shot at.
According to Al Jazeera, the strait is one of the world’s most important maritime routes, as it is the only route to the open sea for oil producers in the Gulf.
In peacetime, 20 percent of global oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) is shipped through it.
Following the first US-Israel strikes on Tehran on February 28, Iran closed the passage to shipping traffic. The waterway remains Iran’s most significant leverage in ongoing peace negotiations with the United States.
Since then, Iran has, at times, allowed some ships to pass, in some cases, reportedly charging tolls as high as $2m per ship to pass.
Why did Iran announce complete closure?
Iran’s military ordered the complete closure of the Strait of Hormuz early on Thursday, June 11, in response to US strikes on the country, which have continued for several days this week.
The US responded by saying some ships were still getting through.
On Tuesday, Iranian media reported explosions in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas and on the nearby island of Qeshm and said water reservoirs supplying 20,000 people had also been destroyed in US strikes on Iran’s southern Sirik region.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) described the strikes as “self-defense.”
It said they were “a proportional response to recent attacks on US forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters”, including the downing of a US Apache attack helicopter over the Strait of Hormuz on Monday.
Iran has denied deliberately targeting the helicopter and the US said it is investigating the incident.
The two countries continued to exchange strikes on Wednesday too even Iran also launched more retaliatory attacks at US assets in Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan.
The same day President Trump, sitting in the Oval Office, told reporters that the United States has been sneaking millions of barrels of oil out of the Strait of Hormuz despite tensions defying Iran’s restrictions on transit through the waterway.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Thursday it had shut the strait for “passage of any vessels” and any that attempted to pass through would be “targeted” in response to a fresh wave of US strikes as the ceasefire between the two countries collapsed.
