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”.
———————————
My reporting and advocacy work has no source of finance at all other than your contributions to keep us going. We get nothing from any state nor any billionaire.
Anybody is welcome to republish and reuse, including in translation.
Because some people wish an alternative to PayPal, I have set up new methods of payment including a Patreon account and a Substack account if you wish to subscribe that way. The content will be the same as you get on this blog. Substack has the advantage of overcoming social media suppression by emailing you direct every time I post. You can if you wish subscribe free to Substack and use the email notifications as a trigger to come for this blog and read the articles for free. I am determined to maintain free access for those who cannot afford a subscription.
Subscriptions to keep this blog going are gratefully received.
Choose subscription amount from dropdown box:
PayPal address for one-off donations: [email protected]
Alternatively by bank transfer or standing order:
Account name
MURRAY CJ
Account number 3 2 1 5 0 9 6 2
Sort code 6 0 – 4 0 – 0 5
IBAN GB98NWBK60400532150962
BIC NWBKGB2L
Bank address NatWest, PO Box 414, 38 Strand, London, WC2H 5JB
Bitcoin: bc1q3sdm60rshynxtvfnkhhqjn83vk3e3nyw78cjx9
Ethereum/ERC-20: 0x764a6054783e86C321Cb8208442477d24834861a
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.
Zoot; I strongly suspect that preserving the “innocent” narrative depends on keeping the Waters as Muddy as is possible.
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’.
Our BBC claims people in Tehran WANT their country to be nuked by zionists.
https://thegrayzone.com/2026/04/07/senior-bbc-iran-reporter-opposition-activist/
Strangely no mention by Our BBC though that the main synagogue in Tehran was destroyed by air strikes.
Bit antisemitic of them to ignore that, don’t you think Pears?
“They know it’s true because they read it on ‘X’.”
You do, don’t you? (except with you it’s more likely to be the BBC.)
The extraordinary operation is likely to have been an attempt to extricate the enriched uranium supposedly being held in tunnels beneath the Zagros Mountains near the city of Isfahan. The aircraft lost or destroyed by the US during the “rescue” mission were in an area not far from Isfahan.
The F-15E jet carrying crew of two (pilot and Weapons Systems Officer) was shot down on Friday over Kohgiluyeh va Boyer-Ahmad province in the southwestern part of Iran. According to Google, this province is over 430 km south of Isfahan and driving through the motorway connecting the province with the city takes at least six hours through mountainous country.
We are supposed to believe that the injured WSO with a sprained ankle managed to scale a 2,300-metre ridge and avoid local bounty hunters during his 45-hour journey to hide in a crevice and send an emergency signal to the rescuers who brought along 155 aircraft to get him out.
155 aircraft, abandoned airport: Theories question US rescue op in Iran
Rescue mission or attempt to seize uranium: What happened during US operation to rescue airman?
To date, the names of the pilot and the WSO have not been released, and their current condition remains unknown. They are supposedly recovering in Landstuhl Hospital near the Ramstein airbase in Germany.
The temporary FOB was still 30km from Isfahan and there’s no record of them taking any vehicles with them. Two C130s would carry a maximum of 128 troops, I believe the number deployed on this mission was somewhat less, and the Isfahan nuclear facility is part of a vast complex covering 4.5 sq km and employing over 3,000 people. It’s fortified and heavily guarded so sending such a small force would be suicidal and how were they supposed to move the 500-600 kg of radioactive material out? The facility has it’s own airstrip with paved runways so why not send the aircraft straight in? It’s the sort of operation special forces, like Delta, train for.
Ok, why do you need two C130s and four helicopters to rescue one pilot? Also how do yo explain the fact that the downed F15 was 200km away?
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
Robert; Iran’s response in being willing to have open discussions with its adversaries, only to be violently rebuffed by having their negotiators murdered appears similar to Iraq’s fate 20 odd years ago. Saddam was prepared to negotiate in good faith and even allowed the entry of “Weapons Inspectors” to ascertain that they didn’t have WMD. The similarity imho lies with the impression that the belligerent Western powers already had made up their minds about the action they were going to take, and that no amount of discussions or inspections was going to make a blind bit of difference.
@ Pyewacket. Yes, that is exactly the case, ie that the Psychos That Be had already decided Iraq was getting whacked – even after Weapons Inspectors had determined that country did not possess WMD: that was always just a pretext anyway. Saddam Hussein found to his extreme cost – as many had done and continue to – that the U.S has no friends/allies, it has pawns, vassals and useful idiots, and once those idiots have expended their usefulness the U.S will either turn on them itself or throw them to their enemies to be torn apart.
The only think keeping Zelensky from the same fate ( so far ) is he’s still serving U.S interests by prolonging the Proxy War and Russian engagement and expenditure – military, human & geopolitical – therein. It also serves U.S interest to have the EUK Vassalage taking over the expense of propping Ukraine up and generally screwing itself up in the process. The Yanks are trying to give the impression their interest/involvement in Ukraine is waning, and whilst it’s accurate that they have, as it were…..dropped everything and scuttled away to serve their Israeli puppet-masters/ puppets hey! it’s complicated ( no, it isn’t really; those two form a nexus of sadistic symbiosis ) ) the ” Continuity of Agenda ” continues, ie to inflict as much damage on Russia/BRICS as possible. They – US – could end this Proxy War overnight if they wanted – the don’t
The US government’s rule is: if you agree to something, that must mean it is not painful enough to you, so we reject it.
“He paused, and for a moment assumed again his air of a schoolmaster questioning a promising pupil: ‘How does one man assert his power over another, Winston?’
“Winston thought. ‘By making him suffer,’ he said.
“‘Exactly. By making him suffer. Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing’”.
– George Orwell (O’Brien to Winston Smith, “1984”)
“Ah! ‘Might is Right’, the core of US foreign policy since 1945”
Remind me who Iran is fighting again. Not those Americans who believe that might makes right and have no regard for international law, surely?
Also neither side are part of UNCLOS.
Parphrasing Epicurus:
“Where War is, Law is not; where Law is, War is not.”
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.
PM.
The Wiki map must be incorrect. The main shipping lane for large deeply laden ships such as tankers is on the Iranian side. They can’t pass close to Musandam as the map suggests. As everyone knows, Wiki is full of propaganda memes.
Laguerre, the discrepancy may well be related to something our host mentioned a good while ago in relation to UNCLOS and the Persian Gulf that has to with shifting Sand Bars and Shallows appearing where once were Deeps and visa versa. Mainly being that the Marine Geography/Topography is not fixed and stable but changes over time. I believe that this is why Kharg Island is used as Iran’s main Oil Terminal as opposed to a Coastal Port/location because it provides enough draft to accommodate those huge Tankers; the VLCCs and ULCCs. (Very and Ultra Large Crude Carriers).
“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.”
Quite possibly they don’t, but when has that ever stopped anyone in the past?
See also Craig’s point about blockades further down.
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”.
Built on the Clyde which probably explains it.
Drains, laundry, water. Next time it will be the galley, I expect.
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?
The strait of Hormuz is not international waters.
It’s hard to take seriously any report that the USA has demanded the reopening of the strait, given that Iran only shut it – or mostly shut it – in response to Zionist and USA aggression.
Yes. During an armed conflict, you can blockade trade to your enemy’s ports on the High Seas or anywhere you can. It’s been the fundamental of naval warfare for centuries. Never read Hornblower?
Britain blockaded German sea trade in the past, during both World Wars I and II.
Actually the British naval blockade went on long after the formal end of WW1, resulting in the deaths of very many German civilians through starvation. When the German delegates saw the utterly unfair and iniquitous terms of the Treaty of Versailles, they refused to sign it. So the “Allies” told them, “OK, but the blockade continues until you sign”. Every single day meant the deaths of German civilians, so they signed.
That fact gives some context to the German bitterness and demands for the return of Danzig, at least – which led to WW2.
“Never end a war without sowing the seeds of the next one”.
As Randolph Bourne explained, “War is the Health of the State”.
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.
Pakistan as a peace broker, some mistake surely.
Media reporting that Iran has shut the straits of Hormuz again – due to the Zionists continued attacks on Lebanon.
The Straits are not a valve, so talk about “opening” and “closing” them is inaccurate. Ships are free to sail through, but the Iranians are free to attack them.
The reality is that to achieve peace in the ME, two things need to happen. One, yanks out of the ME; Two, destruction of Israel (a la apartheid South Africa). If anyone thinks there will ever be peace in the ME whilst these two abominations exist then they are deluded.
Exactly. After that, Yanks out of everywhere except the USA would be another huge step towards peace.
Demilitarization of all US MIC. how Japan was post WW2. this is the only way for a peaceful foreseeable future.
I’ll just post this here for the Capitalist Moralists:
The Iranian Foreign Minister addressing the world:
Let me get one thing straight:
Egypt charges $200,000 to $700,000 per transit through the Suez Canal. Large container ships or tankers can exceed $1 million.
Panama charges $100,000 – $450,000 per transit. Large Neopanamax vessels cost up to $500,000 to transit the Panama Canal.
Turkey charges fees for the Bosphorus Strait.
Canada charges fees for the St. Lawrence Seaway.
The United States charges fees for the St. Lawrence Seaway.
Iran has refused to collect fees for the Strait of Hormuz for decades. They made it free! Despite the defamation, sanctions, and isolation-and yet you want me to believe that Iran is the “bad guy” here?
There is no charge for passing through the Straits of Dover or Gibraltar as these are natural seaways, like the Straits of Hormuz.
As already pointed out Iran doesn’t have sole ownership of the Straits and the shipping lanes are in Omani waters. Iran didn’t collect transit fees because it has no legal right to do so.
https://www.trtworld.com/article/b80708092f78
No, the shipping lanes are not in Omani waters. See my above.
Here’s another map from another source that shows the same thing.
https://cimsec.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Strait_of_hormuz_full-949×1024.jpg
Note that this chart, like the previous one, shows water depths and the deeper water is on the Oman side.
https://c7.alamy.com/comp/3BMD8MW/strait-of-hormuz-colored-political-map-showing-the-shipping-lanes-sea-passage-from-persian-gulf-to-open-ocean-3BMD8MW.jpg
If you’ve any evidence to support your claim please produce it.
PM
One of your “new” sources is the same map you have already linked, and the other is just a derivative you found on an image database site, which has no evidential value at all.
The current situation is depicted here:
https://maritime-executive.com/article/iran-publishes-redrawn-traffic-scheme-for-strait-of-hormuz
It is correct that the official shipping lane, until recent redrawing by Iran, lay nearly all in Omani territorial waters – it’s a shorter route. But it’s also an “official” route delineated by Western and Arab Gulf interests. They may well have desired to avoid Iranian waters, for political reasons. cf. also Blissex further down.
It is important to remember that as recently as the last Ice Age (only 10K years ago), the Gulf was dry land, much like the now submerged Doggerland in the North Sea. The world sea level being lower, with all the water locked up in ice. So the Gulf has many peaks and other irregularities of dry land just under the surface.
I read recently that smaller ships don’t have a problem following the Omani side (and thus the official route), but that the really big tankers used today do, and have to take the Iranian side. Here’s a recent video showing the shipping on the Iranian side:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuDaUTZY0qo
It was the USA and the UK (among many others) who insisted on the Law of the Jungle: Might is Right.
“They don’t like it up ’em”.
well, Israel and U.S. of A. had no legal right to start a war against Iran, but they did it anyway. The Iranian response is small potatoes in comparison.
A well-aimed small potato slung by a fearless David can knock down a Goliath.
“As already pointed out Iran doesn’t have sole ownership of the Straits and the shipping lanes are in Omani waters. Iran didn’t collect transit fees because it has no legal right to do so.”
As already pointed out the US doesn’t have sole ownership of the St Lawrence Seaway. How come the US collects transit fees when it “has no legal right to do so”?.
The St Lawrence Seaway is an artificial inland waterway that connects the Great Lakes with the Atlantic, it passes through Canada and the US so both are entitled to collect fees to pay for the upkeep of the canals and locks.
OK?
“So both are entitled to collect fees to pay for the upkeep of the canals and locks.”
Your point was that Iran has no right to collect tolls because it didn’t own both sides of the strait, not that it had no right because it wasn’t a man-made canal. In any case any narrow navigable waterway, whether it is man-made or not, needs navigation marks to show the official channel and avoid obstructions and such things do not come free of charge.
If Turkey can charge for passage of the Bosphorous, which is not man-made, then Oman and Iran can jointly charge for passage of the Straits of Hormuz.
Good points. At this point the outrageous lawlessness of the West, and the complicit silence of much of the rest of the world, has reached such proportions that I find it impossible to take seriously complaints about Iran’s deviating from perfect legality while it defends itself. And yet the full extent of the West’s double standards specifically on freedom of navigation somehow hadn’t occurred to me before I read your post.
Parphrasing Epicurus:
“Where War is, Law is not; where Law is, War is not.”
The ruling scum do whatever they can get away with, and generally speaking have little to no fear of the law. They like war, though, because war tends to be great for business.
Exactly, just look how israel now, in some perverse sadistic rage, massacre the lebanese in the hundreds, commit wanton destruction etcetera just because there is a “ceasefire” in Iran!? They have such bloodlust and zero empathy – a nation of psychopaths, I would say that israelis are by far now worse than the nazis (as far as mentality goes). I sense that regular germans deep down really understood that what they did was wrong and/or that their support for nazi views were in the end of the day, quite shallow but when I see the israelis, I see how how they even brag about their destruction and killing, daily.
There are also polls showing that the israeli youth is becoming even more right-wing. Netanyahu is still the most popular among politicians:
New Israeli poll shows young Jewish voters most right-wing, fanatically religious, and pro-genocide in Israeli history
https://mondoweiss.net/2026/02/new-israeli-poll-shows-young-jewish-voters-most-right-wing-fanatically-religious-and-pro-genocide-in-israeli-history/
…so much for “israel is a democracy”-bs by the way. A liberal democracy is in the end about voting out destructive people like Netanyahu, instead, the people of israel vote him to power over and over again.
And also, for a people that love to speak how smart they are and how many Nobel Prizes they recieved, when it comes to israel I see a people that is amongst the most violent, most primitive and most tribal of people.
“a nation of psychopaths”, and pedophiles ! Epstein wasn’t an anomaly.
Definitely worse than the Nazis (who BTW did try to make peace with the west but were rebuffed).
The only other nation who glorified their sick violence, AFAIA, was Japan. (Eg. competition to behead 100 Chinese in 1937 during the advance on Nanjing)
Any nation that sees the peoples of other nations as somehow lesser humans will be OK with committing these sort of atrocities.
Epstein’s friend Peter Mandelson is to be fined for urinating on the street in London:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/peter-mandelson-fine-urinating-street-epstein-b2955220.html
He explains: “I was stood up by two Uber drivers”.
Meanwhile, it is said that the New York Taxi and Limousine Commission requires every Uber driver to take Sex Trafficking Awareness training. So, who knows, perhaps there wasn’t a rent boy angle.
@Bayard – “Any nation that sees the peoples of other nations as somehow lesser humans will be OK with committing these sort of atrocities.”
And not just other peoples of other nations, but e.g. people with disabilities, travellers, homosexuals, homeless people, people claiming welfare benefits, working class single mothers, people who have committed crimes, etc.
Given that the class system is so strong in Britain, and the hatred (and fear and disgust) towards those at lower levels (than oneself) is so strong – all wrapped up in wall-to-wall lies in basically any social structure in the country that we want to talk about, from public administration to medicine to journalism to schools – Britain is bound to leapfrog over Germany, Croatia, etc., in the killfest stakes at some point. I have been saying this for years.
“Britain is bound to leapfrog over Germany, Croatia, etc., in the killfest stakes at some point.”
Less talk of leapfrogging, please: given its historical record, this is another area where Britain has always “punched above its weight”.
@Bayard – Did Hitler or Pavelic organise health systems based on waiting lists? It’s true the Nazis had elite boarding schools, but while they copied the English ones on some points they still found the English ones too dictatorial for their liking. British totalitarianism hasn’t yet reached its apotheosis, which it will do inside Britain not outside. There’s huge slack. When it’s taken up, Stanley Milgram’s electroshock experiment will look mild.
Zionist labour infested with pedophiles.
“Yet another right-wing, friends-of-Israel paedophile has been convicted — the latest in the seemingly endless production line of Zionist Labour child rapists and abusers. …The prevalence of paedophiles among the Labour right was not lost on respondents:
this [is] way above the numbers of paedos you’d expect in a random cross section of people … Some commenters wondered whether paedophilia is an entry requirement for the pro-Israel Labour right. ”
https://www.thecanary.co/skwawkbox/2026/04/11/labour-right-another-paedophile/
Don’t mention rent boys !
However one reads the US government’s story of the Rescue of the Anonymous Airman, one should still pay attention to the claim regarding “Ghost Murmur”. First put out in the New York Post tabloid (kinda sub-“Jordan’s had a boob job” level), the claim that such technology exists is being described in the Scientific American (citing the usual “ekshpurts”, in this case ones who “study magnetic fields”) as almost certainly not true.
But then few are aware even of e.g. the use of audio recording tech on many CCTV cameras.
(And then some. There are still people who think swapping out a SIM in a handheld microwave tracker gives you protection from the state.)
To monitor a persons vital signs and report them back to an HQ requires radio signals – which will identify your location – more BS ?
How is this supposed to work? There does at least seem to be a thing called a quantum magnetometer, even if high scepticism is advisable given the role of the New York Post, the Trump White House, and Trump’s joke about putting the head of the CIA in jail.
FWIW, when Nikola Tesla died his papers went to Trump’s uncle.
“How is this supposed to work? ”
Probably like the TV detector vans of yore.
“However one reads the US government’s story of the Rescue of the Anonymous Airman, ”
Do we have any evidence apart from the word of the Pentagon, that the anonymous airman was actually found and rescued?
To paraphrase the Bonzo Dog Doodah Band,
“I’m the Anonymous Airman, baby, here comes the twist,
I don’t exist!”
An excellent article from Arnaud Bertand, on how US military might is not what what we’ve been told it is.
“There is a famous poker saying: “Don’t bluff someone who can’t fold.” Yet it’s exactly what Trump did. Iran literally couldn’t fold. ”
https://arnaudbertrand.substack.com/p/dont-bluff-someone-who-cant-fold?r=4r0pw&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true
The Zionists are determined to destroy the ceasefire, Trump has no power over Israel, its the other way around.
Only force will stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza and mass murder in Lebanon
“Israel has issued an evacuation order for entire southern Beirut, as a deliberate attempt to sabotage peace talks between Iran and the U.S”
Meanwhile – TACO Trump is at it again.
“President Trump has issued an ultimatum for European allies to provide concrete military support and plans for the Strait of Hormuz in the next few days, including possible warship deployments.
This comes after meeting between Trump and NATO’s Mark Rutte — Der Spiegel reports.”
The Zionazi terror state has bombed a synagogue in Tehran, causing many injuries.
“This attack demonstrates the complete hatred of the Zionist regime towards the Jews of Iran,” said Homayoun Sameyah Najafabadi, representative of the Jewish community in Iran’s parliament and head of the Tehran Jewish Association.
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/04/07/766469/israeli-strike-tehran-synagogue-proves-hatred-iran-jews-mpcomplete-
Brian.
I read the other day that that synagogue is much older than (the illegally occupying military oppressive force in Palestine known as) Israel – of course Zionists don’t actually care about the Jews in Iran, they have a history of attacking them in other nations to frighten them into moving to Israel.
I sincerely hope Iran can maintain the blockade of trade through Hormuz against the US and its supporters/allies, including the UK, indefinitely.
This squalid, corrupt, and genocidal empire that we are aligned with, economies driven by the military industrial complex that feed off conflict and war. For all that might and technology, without oil; it is nothing.
Mad Ed would like us to believe we don’t need oil. Another of the chosen race that has an issue with truth.
Ed is a wise Ed. He knows that if we don’t need oil we won’t be drawn into wars for oil. He is however very unhappy that the hegemon corporations are even now towing their drilling equipment into our territorial waters even without explicit government approval. Greenpeace falls foul of the Monroe Doctrine by obstructing this global right to exploit the resources of other nations and so the US has slapped a fine of hundreds of millions on this small, voluntary group which is doing the work that our navy should be doing.
Unfortunately the same companies that want our oil also want to destroy our farmland to profit from so-called ‘green’ technologies. More work is needed to keep out the predatory corporations here too.
And don’t forget the demands on energy and water made by the AI data centres Starmer is still touting for (what does Ed really think about those, one wonders). Let us hope that Aurelian is right and the AI bubble is about to burst.
If the vast expenditure on setting up Western AI has mostly being Gulf nations spending their petrodollars, as it is rumoured to be, then that funding source will be drying up as I write.
Iran may well now go ahead and create a nuke, to be quite honest its the only real way Iran will stop the US and the Zionists from attacking it.
” Head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, Mohammad Eslami, has ruled out any restriction on Iran’s nuclear programme during the upcoming talks, saying attempts to limit its uranium enrichment will not succeed.”
Yes that was the problem, in absence of a strong conventional military defense (which Iran sadly do not have) and the refusal of nations like US and israel following international law (i.e not waging constant war of aggresssion), it goes without saying that Iran should have acquired nuclear weapons, decades ago.
Just look at North Korea, the West stopped their threats and warmongering as soon as they acquired nuclear weapons.
The iranians are simply too kind here.
The alternative ‘solution’ is that Iran doesn’t acquire nukes and the entire ME is declared a nuke free zone – meaning removal of Israeli nukes.
The Zionists will never give up their nukes willingly – and the US will invade, bomb, regime change – any nation that doesn’t possess nukes, simply put the US cannot be trusted – nor can the Zionists.
What I find absurd is the US and Israel have them, but they are preaching that Iran shouldn’t have them – with Trump in office and changing the DoD to the DoW, and the US, and Israel breaking International Law almost on a daily basis, small nations acquiring nukes seems like a fairly good line of defence to pursue.
If the USA withdraws from NATO, what will happen to US nukes currently kept in several NATO countries? Cf. the end of the USSR.
Russian intelligence has been talking about a move towards EU nukes:
https://tass.com/politics/2113551
Several regimes could make nukes within days or weeks – Germany, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea.
As for the “sea cables” story, part of it is the British regime wanting to look as though it’s a player. But that’s probably not the whole of it. TASS is reporting that the Kiev regime is planning to attack Russian ships in the Barents Sea and Norwegian Sea:
https://tass.com/politics/2114353
“– A group of about 50 personnel from the 385th Separate Brigade of Naval Unmanned Special Purpose Complexes of the Ukrainian Navy has arrived in Norway, according to the source.
– The Ukrainian military personnel are practicing the use of unmanned underwater and surface systems in cold-temperature conditions jointly with specialists from the Norwegian Navy Special Operations Command.“
The Norwegian military have issued some kind of denial of the TASS report:
“We have not trained Ukrainian forces with the aim of attacking Russian vessels in the Norwegian and Barents Seas, as described by TASS.
Stordal confirmed that Norway does provide training for Ukrainian soldiers, but stressed that none of these activities are intended to support attacks on maritime traffic in northern waters (…)
Norway’s Prime Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, said: ‘Ukraine needs greater support to deter Russian naval forces in the Black Sea in the period ahead.’ ”
https://www.thebarentsobserver.com/security/russian-propaganda-claims-norway-is-helping-ukraine-prepare-attacks-on-vessels-in-northern-waters/448337
The filthy rich Støre is one to watch, what with his family background in shipping and explosives, his time at Sciences Po in Paris, and his loony background of sending his children to Steiner schools – albeit the last is not uncommon among the Oslo elite.
Good points Brian, the one that is on all the MSM news platforms – right now, is the sea cables one, and I agree with your analysis on it – it’s Westminster attempting to show its a player – when in reality its a an also ran – this morning we had Yvette Cooper mouth off about the Laws of the Sea, (which our host knows quite a bit about) on forcing Iran to open the Straits of Hormuz.
As for Norway training Ukraine’s Neo-Nazi forces, several European nations have done this including Britain.
“We have not trained Ukrainian forces with the aim of attacking Russian vessels in the Norwegian and Barents Seas, as described by TASS.”
“Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied.” ― Otto von Bismarck
[Reply to Jack]
In my view, why bother with the cost and complexity of nuclear bombs? Hypersonic ‘conventional’ missiles (aimed at another state’s nuclear power stations or, worse, ‘reprocessing plants’) seem a simpler means to deter aggression, if deterrence is the objective.
At present, 32 states have ‘civilian’ nuclear power programmes. France, by building a vast nuclear power programme, made itself vulnerable to this kind of action. Australia, by deciding not to bother with NPPs, didn’t.
April 2026 marks the 40th. anniversary of the Chernobyl accident. It contaminated large parts of Europe and a lot of people will have developed serious illnesses or died as a result. Yet no nuclear weapons were involved. The amount of radioactive material in a NPP is significantly higher than in a nuclear warhead.
Okay, so now it is time to start to think the unthinkable. Trump is talking about disbanding NATO. He is demanding that members commit ships and troops to his illegal wars, and the forward pawns are to be placed in the line of fire of Iran’s defence forces. Europe is in disarray. Some countries are openly advocating refusing to supply arms to Israel or allow ships, complicit in Israel’s genocide of its neighbours, to dock there. Other countries are still following orders, still fooling themselves that promised rewards will materialise if they continue to take out Russia’s fuel nodes, on the pretext of supporting Kiev, to occupy the Oblasts that seceded, and are currently ‘defended’ by Russian occupying forces.
It’s a mess. Zionists occupy key roles in all our governments. Rule of law must be made more robust, to require any politician who accepts any freebies from any foreign interest, be it a person, corporation, or group, to stand down forthwith. Wales has introduced such legislation and already one Reform politician has had to go. The previous Labour Leader stepped down with apologies before the legislation was proposed annd passed. Anyone who deliberately lies in office or promises something they cannot evidence is possible, or-and defendable, likewise has to resign.
Will they declare Europe the enemy if Europe openly states its refusal to comply? Many Jewish people have not forgiven European countries for capitulating during WWII.
Realignments are looming. Countries need to clean out their own corruption, and make alliances based on openly declared, shared, principles and Defence priorities. The Fifth Column has its feet under the table in all the rooms where our levers of power are maintained and managed.
The privatisation of war was a declared priority of Bush. Cameron and May worked purposefully to support and deliver the business opportunities of war.
We are sitting pretty, with our peace, democracies, and rule of law, while a hostile hegemon threatens every asset that sustains this fragile consensus.
Trump doesn’t have the power to unilaterally leave NATO, as such a move requires a two-thirds vote of the US Senate. He’ll never get close to that.
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024, signed into law in December 2023, prohibits the President from unilaterally withdrawing from the North Atlantic Treaty unless the action is backed by two-thirds of the Senators present or authorized through a separate act of Congress.
Trump’s popularity is on the slide, with an approval rating of little over 30% in some polls. This, despite the huge Israeli lobby effort online, on social media, to present the war as popular among Trump’s MAGA supporters. The all-important independent voters hate this war according to polling. American voters are a lot like European voters, really, albeit US voters are more heavily propagandised by their Zionist-leaning TV news networks’ output. It’s a universal truism though, that voters everywhere, don’t like, signs that their leaders may be i. crazy, and ii. have a lack of compassion(empathy). Trump and Hegseth have made voters question both over Iran. Nor are Americans impressed with the idea of cutbacks to social programmes to fund Trump’s ridiculous $1.5 trillion defence budget uplift demand. If US voters were asked whether they’d prefer a European-style, free universal healthcare system instead of the killing machines. I wonder what their response would be?
———–
Back to the UK.
Today, we’ve had John Healey bleating about Russian subs, doing, well, what you’d expect Russian subs to do. This from the Guardian’s report:
Declining to reveal precisely where the operation took place, Healey said it did not happen in UK territorial waters but in the exclusive economic zone that extends up to 200 nautical miles from the UK coastline, or where it meets the boundary of other nations’ zones.
We’ve just had the US’s ‘Ghost Murmur’ revealed ; using quantum-magnetometry and artificial intelligence to isolate a human heartbeat’s unique signature from background noise at a distance of 40 miles away. It’s quite likely, is it not, that undersea devices, based on this technologies are being strategically placed to precisely track Russian and Chinese subs locations by their acoustic fingerprints?
You think Trump and his fellow grifter felons give a fuck about Congress, or the Senate? About the American Constitution? If so, I’d like to sell you the Francis Scott Key Bridge…
Healey was doing Trump’s bidding, making Trump’s Greenland case for him.
Washington is promising to punish uncooperative NATO allies now that Spain has strongly condemned the attacks on Lebanon.
Maybe Trump ‘can’t’ pull the US out of NATO unilaterally but he is threatening Europe if it does not do as he says, including threatening Greenland, and telling the King he wants our oil. Shell has now pulled out of an agreed off-shore wind farm and is towing drilling gear in UK waters, without government permission, because as Trump says, we have a toy navy, which isn’t going to stop him
“If US voters were asked whether they’d prefer a European-style, free universal healthcare system instead of the killing machines. I wonder what their response would be?”
Yes but this could have been asked any time for the last three generations. A related question would be why TF allow the US government to have any military presence at all outside of its borders, “saving Vietnam from the Vietnamese”, when its homeland territory is not under threat from any foreign power.
IMO, the average, middle class, working american does not want their taxes spent on the less fortunate. Capitalists fear any form of socialism.
“its homeland territory is not under threat from any foreign power.” Au contraire, Israel.
US neocons crave the old certainties of the Cold War – ideological rivalries; long used to justify the obscene military spend. Hence why they were determined to make Putin’s far less ideological, far weaker, Russia (at least compared to the U.S.S.R) the adversary of choice again. China wasn’t suitable, because it simply doesn’t involve itself in international conflicts. On which :
Rutte has praised the U.K and Norway on X :
Welcome UK and Norwegian operations against Russian submarines in the High North. These efforts to disrupt Russian surveillance of our critical undersea infrastructure protect us all. NATO continues to constantly monitor Russian military activity in the region
Healey says the UK must challenge Russia over their Artic ambitions. Grab a map and explain the UK’s claim. Objectively, it’s Russia’s backyard. It is a simple statement of fact to say : Russia holds the strongest legal and physical claim to the Arctic, controlling over 50% of the Arctic coastline. Russia also accounts for nearly 50% of the total Arctic population. And as for Norway, the Svalbard Treaty permits access(to Russia, among others) and forbids militarisation. I really don’t understand what the UK thinks it is doing challenging Russia in the Arctic?
The northernmost point of the UK (in the Shetland Isles) is about 400 km / 250 miles south of the Arctic Circle.
About 20% of the Russian Federation lies north of the Arctic Circle. That part of Russia comprises roughly 4.8 million square km.
That means the Arctic part of Russia is about 20 times the size of the entire UK. In the simplest terms, Russia is the largest Arctic nation, while the UK is not an Arctic nation.
“I really don’t understand what the UK thinks it is doing challenging Russia in the Arctic?”
Entitlement – the usual story.
Just as they were scared for so long that Russia would “get” India. Which would have been bad, because India belonged to Britain.
“I really don’t understand what the UK thinks it is doing challenging Russia in the Arctic?”
Because it is addicted to the political Viagra of pretending it is still a world power.
From my understanding quantum-magnetometry has never been upscaled to work outside of laboratory conditions. I believe the Chinese may have achieved results up to several 100 metres. I could be wrong but IMO this is all BS.
Meanwhile, the once great British Navy has it’s two aircraft (less) carriers in port undergoing maintenance, it’s fearsome destroyers unable to reliably operate in warm waters with HMS Dragon undergoing maintenance after spending three weeks limping to the Med, and Russian tankers steaming up and down La Manche ‘shadowed’ by, wait for it, an RFA Ship. Putin must be pissing himself … smoke and mirrors, smoke and mirrors.
With HMS Dargon out of action, does the Royal Navy actually have any seaworthy ships?
From my vantage point (skewed perhaps) if Iran’s basic demands are not met and a permanent end to hostilities achieved then there will not be US elections this year as the situation will escalate beyond control.
Trump’s low and falling approval ratings and polls pointing to the Democrats taking control of the House and probably also the Senate suggest the government may well try to stop the mid-term elections. Trump won’t win back approval on the basis of anything that happens outside USA borders. Such an effort against the elections could also bring MAGA elements back on board who have been showing signs of peeling off, given the adrenaline rush they’d get from “liberal”, “loser”, and “virtue signaller” blood on the streets.
Talking of blood on the streets, Trump is today circulating graphic murder footage to millions of his eager supporters. I haven’t watched it, but it’s described in the following article. This is a step on from the wrestling, kayfabe, and “reality TV”:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/10/trump-graphic-video-florida-woman-killing
“Besieged by questions about his war on Iran and his wife’s statement on Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump tried to shift the national conversation back to his immigration crackdown by posting a graphic, distressing video of a woman in Florida being killed last week by a man he described as an illegal immigrant from Haiti.
The video, taken by a surveillance camera outside a Fort Myers gas station, showed a man identified by authorities as a Haitian immigrant using a hammer to bludgeon to death the woman, who was reportedly a clerk at the gas station.
Trump’s decision to elevate such graphic images of a woman’s death by posting it for his millions of followers on Truth Social was startling, but in keeping with a pattern of using shocking video of violence attributed to undocumented immigrants to sow fear about immigration and justify mass deportation.“
«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.»
https://www.britannica.com/place/Strait-of-Hormuz
“The shipping lanes lie mostly in Omani territorial waters, and somewhat in Iranian territorial waters”
Our international law expert carefully omits to mention that most of the strait of Hormuz is in the territorial waters of Oman over which the iranian government have no jurisdiction.
I guess that if the iranian government can legitimately block passage of enemy ships or the ships of any state trading with their enemy through the territorial waters of another state then they can legally block passage of enemy ships or ships trading with their enemy through Gibraltar, the Kattegat, Malacca, the Bosphorus.
And of course so can the Russian Federation block the passage through any straits of ukrainian ships and of any nation trading with Ukraine, and of course vice-versa for Ukraine. 🙂
The right to blockade does not just apply in territorial waters. Craig knows this (see his comment earlier) and so would you if you’d read all the comments.
Comments related to the starvation blockades of both world wars which were mostly conducted in international waters. To the best of my knowledge a state of war does not exist between Oman and Iran.
Pears Morgaine
From what I have read Iran is prepared to share the fees with Oman.
The Art of the Deal.
Trump being a businessman should agree with that.
You had better tell the Russian Shadow Fleet that the waters of the world are free to travel.
There is Liberal theory and then there is reality.
The Iranian spokesperson is still correct.
Nothing is for free.
Not even Freedom.
There is always a cost.
Comments related to the starvation blockades of both world wars which were mostly conducted in international waters.
Ok, remind me of a blockade that was conducted solely in the territorial waters of the belligerents and, while you are about it, remind me which of C. S. Forester’s books has his hero Horatio Hornblower, now about 120 years old, on active service in WWI?
“To the best of my knowledge a state of war does not exist between Oman and Iran.”
Well that’s OK because Iran is not blockading Oman.
‘🚨Keir Starmer sent a MQ-9 Reaper drone over Lebanon for 13 hours yesterday
Departing from RAF Akrotiri, it flew in circles near Baalbek. At same time, Israeli strikes killed 18 people in area
Starmer flew intel flights over Gaza for Israel. Is this part of same arrangement?’
— Matt Kennard
https://x.com/kennardmatt/status/2042341582033006627
Typical. Participating in genocide while risking nothing and trying to maintain plausible deniability.
Wicked, dishonest, and cowardly.
“Wicked, dishonest, and cowardly.”
To be fair, if he wasn’t he would never have become leader of the “Labour Party”.
What is this about? What is Matt Kennard’s source?
The British regime says it no longer uses the MQ-9 (aka MQ-9a):
https://www.raf.mod.uk/aircraft/reaper-mq9a/
https://www.raf.mod.uk/news/articles/raf-reaper-makes-final-flight/
Perhap it retains some for, as you say, plausibly deniable missions. Such as assisting British special forces on the ground, for example?
Seems it was actually an MQ-9B Protector drone.
A neat distillation. One of the worst humans ever to have held that office, yet still portrayed by British journalists one of the best.
No surprise that a zionist press would think that a zionist PM killing non Jews was the best !
A serious clean out is long overdue.
Regarding the news about Melania Trump denying links to Epstein, could it be that Trump now needs the Epstein files to distract attention from the outrage of the month (starting a war with Iran, in defiance of his commitment to his MAGA voter base), instead of the other way round as usual, because the war has gone so badly? And it could get worse, if America has a Teutoburg moment in the Gulf, before the month is out.
Whoever is instructing Melania Trump may not have heard of the Streisand effect. This idiot is calling her correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell “casual”, “polite”, and “trivial”. She is also saying people gotta stop making allegations about her and Epstein.
At least Trump is getting some from some MAGA figures for doing Netanyahu’s bidding.
The arch-zionist Democrats, by stark contrast, have been criticising Trump only for not going hard *enough* on Iran. Did you see Chuck Schumer and his chalkboard?
Starmer likewise has received zero criticism from HM ‘Opposition’ or the British media for his participation in these brutal zionist attacks on Iran and Lebanon. (As was the case, very scrupulously, throughout the Gaza Genocide).
* some heat from MAGA figures
It’s not looking good.
“Reports of the Iranian delegation arriving in Islamabad are false, and negotiations are suspended until Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Lebanon” – Tasnim news reports”
And.
“Kamal Kharazi, head of the Iranian Strategic Council for Foreign Relations, has died from injuries sustained in an Israeli airstrike during the war. He was heading negotiations with U.S. through Pakistan — IRNA”
Experience shows that Israel will not stop the killing and will undermine any attempts at peace. Now that the carpet has been lifted the world has seen how evil and fake the zionist Jews really are. So, for them this current spate of killing is existential, that’s the danger for everyone else. Only the USA can stop Israel, but if and when Israel goes down it will take the zionist infested west with it, and that includes Westminster and the MSM.
Yes the world now sees what an evil oppressive illegally squatting regime Israel is.
However Epstein’s work to blackmail many Western leaders – has led them to talk about how evil they are but to do nothing.
Thank you for setting the record straight on AJ, Craig, it was long overdue for someone to get through to this Sunni run channel.
The whole world now knows that the Zionist and their conditioned sporn are cold hearted killers who care nothing about Balfours aims or international laws and norms, they have no right to exist and lord it over the equally conditioned western Governments or us.
Further to media suppression of British government/ Army participation in zionist genocide, Matt Kennard publishes today a confidential ‘D-Notice’ censorship order sent out to all UK media editors on 28 Oct 2023.
‘It says British media should not report any unofficial information about UK military units “engaged in security, intelligence and counter-terrorist operations” in Middle East’
The edict seems to have been uniformly observed, even by the most self-styled ‘fearless, adversarial’ sections of Britain’s ‘globally-admired free press’. It was only genocide, after all.
https://x.com/kennardmatt/status/2042529543605383669
Matt Kennard publishes today a confidential ‘D-Notice’ censorship order sent out to all UK media editors on 28 Oct 2023,
Unlikely as D Notices ceased to exist in 1993.
As is made clear this is a reminder of one of the standing DSMA notices which have been around for decades in one guise or the other.
https://www.dsma.uk/standing-notices/
So not really news.
Their compliance was voluntary. Yet every one of them obeyed and has continued to suppress British participation in the Gaza Genocide to this day. Every ‘respectable’ mass-media outlet you seek to portray as trustworthy.
“You cannot hope to bribe nor twist,
Thank God, the British journalist.
But seeing what the man will do,
Unbribed, there’s no occasion to.”
True in the 1930s, still true now.
Lets not forget Rutte refers to Trump as Daddy, I’d imagine he gave Rutte – ( a grovelling little shit), a right mouthful worse than he gave to the Neo-Nazi dictator Zelensky – no doubt Rutte replied : Oh Daddy’s upset.
“US President Donald Trump unleashed a “tirade of insults” at NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte during their meeting at the White House on Wednesday, Politico has reported, citing European officials.
Rutte’s trip to Washington followed weeks of Trump’s criticism of NATO over its reluctance to join the US-Israeli war against Iran and warnings about possible American withdrawal from the bloc.
The US president used the talks, which happened behind closed doors, to vent his frustration with European NATO members, Politico said in an article on Thursday.
“It went sh*t,” one European official told the outlet, adding that Trump had badmouthed Rutte and “apparently threatened to do just about anything.””
I can’t disagree with any of the below.
“Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif has blasted the Israeli regime as “evil and a curse for humanity,” slamming its ongoing genocide against innocent civilians in Lebanon while diplomatic peace efforts are underway in Islamabad.
Taking to the social media platform X on Thursday, the senior Pakistani politician drew a clear line between the Zionist entity’s bloodletting and any pretense of pursuing peace, stating: “Israel is evil and a curse for humanity, while peace talks are underway in Islamabad, genocide is being committed in Lebanon. Innocent citizens are being killed by Israel, first Gaza, then Iran and now Lebanon, bloodletting continues unabated.”
Asif further described the Zionist regime as a “cancerous state” forcibly implanted on Palestinian land, underscoring that its very existence has brought nothing but destruction and instability to the region and the wider world.”
In my opinion Iran holds all the cards, because it has enough missiles left in its arsenal [both short and long range] to literally whip out oil production facilities across the Gulf [the US knows this] causing a world economic melt down in short order.
Even in the event that Iran is turned into Gaza, Iran’s fast speed boats well hidden underground, its Ghadir class submarines [approx 30] specially designed to operate in the shallow waters of the strait and capable of firing torpedoes and missiles at any vessel attempting to run the gauntlet. Then of course Iran has a vast inventory of drones and mines of every description. In other words Iran can hold the west to ransom, and the west know it.
Trump wants other western navies to open the strait, but the greatest naval force in the history of the world dare not venture within 1000 miles of the strait, they are not cowards, they are only exercising prudent military caution, just one unstoppable ballistic missile on a carrier flight deck would cause such embarrassment, the US could not live it down.
Lets see if anything come from this.
” In a stunning development, NATO has agreed to help secure the Strait of Hormuz. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte indicate that a coalition of around 22 countries (mostly NATO members, plus allies) is coordinating to ensure free navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.”
https://nitter.poast.org/_MAGA_NEWS_/status/2042549633097044359#m
No doubt the Royal Navy will contribute its one operational warship.
Daddy’s (Trump) Pet – Rutte, didn’t name them all, but he did name a few nations in this article.
https://shippingtelegraph.com/shipping-news/nato-chief-says-22-nations-working-to-secure-strait-of-hormuz/
The Iranians will have to keep close tabs on those 22 NATO and allied countries to make sure their navies don’t pocket the tollbooth fees and/or demand exorbitant collection fees on top.
I’m sure most of the military of the USA and NATO forces are well aware that if you have a narrow bottleneck it’s relatively easy to defend and control. Unfortunately, stupid politicians don’t understand this basic fact. Maybe they should study the Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC).