Two Indian LPG tankers slipped through the Strait of Hormuz at dawn on Saturday. No warships escorted them. No coalition of the willing cleared their path. A phone call did — between Prime Minister Modi and Iranian President Pezeshkian, followed by three conversations between their foreign ministers in a single week. For Israel, which has staked its long-term economic architecture on the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor running through Haifa, the implications of that phone call deserve more attention than the tankers themselves.

Since Operation Epic Fury began on 28 February, Iran has converted the Strait of Hormuz from a maritime commons into a political sorting mechanism. Foreign Minister Araghchi’s formula is brutally simple: the strait is open to all except ‘enemies’ and their allies. The IRGC’s 10 March escalation went further — offering ‘unrestricted passage’ to any country that expels Israeli and American ambassadors. This is energy access weaponised as a diplomatic loyalty test, dividing the world into those who may transit Hormuz and those who may not. India, through sheer weight of relationship, has placed itself on the permitted side of that line. Brent crude has surged past $104. The IEA calls it the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market. And India’s 333 million LPG-dependent households can still cook dinner.

The contrast with Washington’s approach could hardly be starker. Trump has called on China, France, and the United Kingdom to send warships. Japan says dispatch faces high legal hurdles. Europe is deliberating whether to extend the Aspides naval mission from the Red Sea. India, meanwhile, achieved with diplomatic capital what a carrier strike group has not: actual cargo moving through the strait. Jaishankar told reporters in Brussels that the........

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