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When U.S. President Donald Trump said that he would open the Strait of Hormuz, what he evidently meant was that the United States would promote the kinds of shady practices that animate the “shadow fleets” of Russia, Iran, and Venezuela. Many of the ships now getting in or out of Hormuz are doing so in the dark, with their transponders off. That’s so that they can avoid detection by Iran, which takes potshots at what it considers to be rogue vessels and charges tolls on others.

Which means that the Strait of Hormuz is not quite as closed as the world thought it was. It is far from fully open, though. 

When U.S. President Donald Trump said that he would open the Strait of Hormuz, what he evidently meant was that the United States would promote the kinds of shady practices that animate the “shadow fleets” of Russia, Iran, and Venezuela. Many of the ships now getting in or out of Hormuz are doing so in the dark, with their transponders off. That’s so that they can avoid detection by Iran, which takes potshots at what it considers to be rogue vessels and charges tolls on others.

Which means that the Strait of Hormuz is not quite as closed as the world thought it was. It is far from fully open, though. 

Scores of ships, including lots of oil tankers, have moved through the strait in recent days under the watchful eye of the U.S. Navy, hewing to an unconventional route that skirts the Omani coast rather than sticking to the traditional route in the middle or the toll booth that Tehran has installed on the northern bank. That is one reason why oil prices have stayed roughly in the $90 range rather than spiking, as Trump himself said, even as global oil inventories dwindle and the shortfalls from 100 days of war pile........

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