The Strait of Hormuz has always been more than a stretch of water. It is a pressure point of the modern world – where oil, ideology, history and fear collide in ways that reverberate far beyond the Middle East. The recent US–Israeli strike on Iran, described in the attached analysis as part of ‘Operation Epic Fury’, has pushed that fragile equilibrium to breaking point, triggering a cascade of retaliation, economic panic and moral uncertainty that now touches every corner of the global system.

At the heart of this crisis lies a brutal truth. Nearly one-fifth of the world’s oil moves through the Strait of Hormuz. When that artery is blocked, the world does not simply feel discomfort – it feels shock. The analysis notes that roughly 20 million barrels per day were suddenly at risk, sending oil prices soaring above US$110 a barrel in days and producing the sharpest energy shock since the 1970s. Those numbers are not abstract. They translate into rising food prices in Jakarta, power shortages in South Asia, transport costs in Europe, and mortgage anxiety in Australian suburbs already worn thin by inflation. 

The war in the Gulf has once again proven that globalisation binds humanity together in prosperity and in pain. Yet what makes this moment more disturbing than previous crises is not only the scale of the economic fallout but the moral vacuum surrounding it. 

The killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader in a joint strike has been framed in Washington and Tel Aviv as a strategic necessity. But around the world, the reaction has been one of shock rather than solidarity. The United Nations Secretary-General warned of catastrophic humanitarian consequences, and the UN human-rights chief spoke bluntly of the ‘death, destruction and human misery’ that inevitably follows such escalation. That language matters. It reflects a growing sense that the rules that once restrained great powers are eroding before the world’s eyes.

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Australia sits in an uncomfortable space within this unfolding tragedy. Public statements from Canberra emphasised solidarity with allies and the need to prevent nuclear proliferation, yet the emotional response across Australian cities has been far more complex. Vigils and protests emerged in Melbourne and Sydney under slogans such as ‘Hands Off Iran’, revealing a society that instinctively recoils from another Middle Eastern war even as it struggles to reconcile alliance politics with........

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