In international law, Tehran has every right to close the strait of Hormuz to nations with which it is in armed conflict. Two vital points:
1) States who permit attacks on Iran to be launched from their territory can be blocked
2) Iran can block neutral ships from trading with states with which it is in conflict.
Plainly UK ships can be blocked under 1). But it is also undeniable that Gulf states have permitted attacks to be launched from their territory. A-10 Warthog attack jets have been routinely used against Iranian ships and were used in the extraordinary operation at the weekend involving special forces on the ground in Iran.
(If you believe that was a pilot rescue I have a bridge to sell you).
Multiple types of helicopter have also been used. The 5th fleet having run away well into the Indian ocean, these short-range aircraft can only be operating out of the Gulf states.
HIMARS short-range missiles were also used against Kharg Island – again this has to be from the Gulf states.
Iran has the right therefore to close the Strait of Hormuz to ships trading with those Gulf States that are hosting US forces attacking Iran. Which effectively means an almost complete closure of the straits.
The remaining legal obligation – from Article 34 of the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea – is to allow free passage to neutral vessels which are not trading with states with which Iran is in armed conflict. That is not likely to be a large number of vessels.
A week ago I participated in a discussion on Al Jazeera in which I was able to make some of these points. I also pointed out the hypocrisy of the Western powers’ sudden interest in freedom of navigation, when they have been supporting or ignoring illegal blockades of Gaza, Cuba and Venezuela, and illegal action against the misnamed “Russian shadow fleet”.
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Good to see you correct the host’s lie that ‘the gulf states are not belligerents at all’. It’s one that has been spread not just by al-Jazeera but throughout western media. He could not think of any alternative explanation for where those Himars and Warthogs had been fired from, so rapidly screeched away to a different subject. I wonder if this particular lie has been challenged on TV by anybody else, whether before or since.
Craig, what in fact was “the extraordinary operation at the weekend involving special forces on the ground in Iran” if not a pilot rescue?
Genuine question.
Thank you.
JK redux
It was a shambolic attempt to steal Iran’s uranium, and we all know how that ended, the pilot that was rescued was around 200km away from the site where multiple US military aircraft lay smouldering and in pieces.
Also the ceasefire won’t make it to Friday’s talks in Islamabad – the Zionists are continuing to bomb and kill in Lebanon – Iran says Lebanon must be included in the ceasefire – the Zionists and Trump say no – (Taco Tuesday Trump) – has also said that they’ll be an immediate 50% tariff applied to any nation (trading with the USA) if they sell weapons to Iran.
They know it’s true because they read it on ‘X’.
The Strait of Hormuz is divided between Iran and Oman and the shipping lanes are in Oman’s waters.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Strait_of_hormuz_full.jpg
Seems to me that Iran has no more right to block the passage of ships in Oman waters than the UK has to ban ships from using the French side of the Straits of Dover.
I think the concept of ” right ” is lying, annihilated under several million tons of rubble that used to be a place called Gaza.
As Iran itself would be if it hadn’t demonstrated it’s total refusal to bow to ZioYank terrorism in the only language the latter understands – reciprocal violence. Iran has, thus far, shown remarkable restraint/ discrimination in the selection of it’s targets – unlike the savages, why the *uck should it not use every advantage it has in it’s fight with an aggressor with much greater military capacity and the virtually uncritical support of ” allies ” ( vassals )? An aggressor that launched an unprovoked attack, two of those attacks occurring during supposed * Negotiations * and whose sheer hatred and desire to wipe you – totally – out is undisguised and they’re supposed to ” play fair “, lacking the ” right ” to prevent their elimination?
Ah! ‘Might is Right’, the core of US foreign policy since 1945. International Law was mentioned.
that’s not what I’m saying; I’m pretty sure Iran would much rather settle differences amicably – rationally: they had done everything asked of them by the ” International Community “, but it was never enough, never could be enough because ” enough ” doesn’t exist as a concept for it’s ( Iran ) assailants. Whether it’s money, power, land, control, violence, it’s never enough
It’s odd the US bringing up International law, when it already lies in tatters with their unprovoked war.
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (UNCLOS)? 12 nautical miles out from a state’s coast. But Iran has not ratified the convention.
Maybe Europe is quiet because of the trend of impounding Russian ships, the so-called shadow fleet. UNCLOS provides that ships of all states enjoy the right of innocent passage through the territorial sea, or transit passage through a strait used for international navigation. Seizure of a vessel which is enjoying these rights would be unlawful as a matter of international law.
The English navy – is in a worse state than Scottish ferries, and that’s saying something.
“HMS Dragon, which was absolutely not hit by a Hezbollah missile, returns to port for repairs due to ‘problems with drinking water”.
I think your thinking on the closure of the Hormuz Strait needs fleshing out. I don’t see that the legalities are so clear cut. Are we to believe that it’s OK for international waters to be weaponised? Even in this case where Iran is so obviously the target of an illegal war?
I was pleasantly surprised to hear you on The Inside Story last week – good job, and I hope you become more of a regular contributor there. Your point about the selective enthusiasm of Western powers on the application of International Law and blockades was excellent.
The sleight of hand tactics of this war have 3 aims. Firstly the attack on Iran provides cover for the expansion of the Greater Israel Project in Lebanon. We are looking at Iran. Lebanon is being obliterated.
The ceasefire statement was immediately followed by hundreds of missiles raining down on residential areas of southern Lebanon. In the last few hours the destruction has begun to encompass Beirut itself. Half of Lebanon is controlled by Israel and hundreds lie dead under the ruins of their homes, just like Gaza.
The pause is to prepare for the next phase. Netanyahu will not stop until Iran is completely deactivated.
Trump on the other hand is motivated solely by profit and monopoly hegemony. Share price control in the first phase. It would seem that markets were advised of the ceasefire 15 minutes prior to his announcement of a ceasefire. The agreement which promises to pay millions to Iran and Oman, for every ship that passes through the Strait of Hormuz seems a naive expectation.
Trump gets the oil. Iran gets oblivion. He made that very clear in his premature promise of fulfilling this objective overnight. Everywhere will be like Gaza, unless anyone has any other suggestion?
Is anyone going to stop it? Iran is still responding to each attack as if it might be sufficient to generate a genuine ceasefire. But we have watched Gaza, step by step, area by area, herded, flattened, destroyed, with special targeting of medics, soup kitchens, and journalists. Another Al Jazeera reporter was drone striked today. Nobody is preventing the carnage. Pakhistan may think it has brokered a real pause. It seems unlikely.
Media reporting that Iran has shut the straits of Hormuz again – due to the Zionists continued attacks on Lebanon.