What motivated the US President Donald Trump to order the naval blockade of Iran? Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told France’s public television broadcaster in an interview recently that the Trump administration was moving in the direction of seizing control of Iran’s oil and gas reserves. 

“Venezuela is a stark example. The claim was that the drug traffickers’ regime must be taken down. The bottom line is that the United States is taking control of Venezuela’s oil industry. The same is now happening with Iran,” Lavrov alleged. 

That was one clever remark, given Russia’s deep interest in partnering with Iran’s oil and gas sector rather than competing. The cascading oil price brought windfall profits to Russia in dozens of billions of dollars on the one hand while also compelling Washington to ease the sanctions on the other hand to facilitate additional flow of Russian oil that was good for the market.  

Tehran has taken note of the Venezuelan analogy. In a wide-ranging televised interview broadcast yesterday, the powerful Speaker of  Iran’s Majlis Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, a pivotal figure in the country’s leadership, inter alia noted, “The enemy believed Iran was like Venezuela and assumed that after a few days it could seize our oil and allow anyone wishing to transport oil from the Persian Gulf to do so.”

How far off the mark are the Indian analysts who wax eloquently that the Hormuz issue is all about Pax Americana — the rules-based order, freedom of navigation and open trade, open sea lanes, stable trade routes. Sheer naiveté! 

The geopolitics of the Strait of Hormuz is plain to see. First, some........

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