Opinion

MORNING GLORY: US must create a demilitarized zone along the Hormuz Strait

Even after more combat operations to reduce the Iranian regime’s military to ruins, international law about international waterways must be articulated and enforced — with or without NATO’s help

By Hugh Hewitt Fox News

Published May 21, 2026 5:00am EDT

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US military intercepts Iranian-flagged oil tanker trying to violate blockade

U.S. Central Command said U.S. Marines in the Gulf of Oman "boarded M/T Celestial Sea, an Iranian-flagged commercial oil tanker suspected of attempting to violate the U.S. blockade by transiting toward an Iranian port." (Credit: CENTCOM)

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The United States, alongside coalition allies like the UK and France, established two no-fly zones in Iraq in the 1990s after the first Gulf War that followed Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, which remained in place until the major combat operations in Iraq ended after the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The northern "no-fly" zone was established in April, 1991. The southern no-fly zone was established in August, 1992. The northern zone was designed to protect Iraqi Kurds from more retribution from Saddam Hussein. The southern zone was established to protect the Shia populations there that Saddam had massacred after his massive defeat at the hands of the "Coalition of the Willing" in the "100 Hours" campaign to expel Saddam s forces from Kuwait. Those two operations were low intensity conflicts and carried on for years. It’s time to reprise that sort of operation.

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