As soon as Operation Epic Fury, America’s latest campaign against the Islamic Republic of Iran, got underway on the last day of February, political, military and economic minds around the world should have turned their attention to the Strait of Hormuz. The waterway provided the only shipping route from the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the open seas beyond.

That has long made the strait the dagger Iran holds at the throat of the world. At its narrowest, it is less than 25 miles across, and Iran controls the northern shore; to the south is the Musandam Peninsula, shared by the United Arab Emirates and an exclave of Oman. Critically, between a quarter and a fifth of the world’s liquefied natural gas and seaborne oil trade passes through the Strait of Hormuz, and there is currently no sustainable, large-scale alternative route. The West has always known that Iran could disrupt or even halt this vital flow of energy in a crisis by laying mines in the strait or threatening to strike or intercept commercial shipping.

NATO has no business as an institution in forcing the Strait of Hormuz open

NATO has no business as an institution in forcing the Strait of Hormuz open

Iran announced the closure of the strait on the first day of American and Israeli strikes against it. This had no legal standing, but the implied threat sent premiums for maritime insurance through the roof: attacks on shipping in the Bab-el-Mandeb by Houthi militants in Yemen have........

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