In brief, Iran has achieved its goal by blocking the Strait of Hormuz: to realize the catastrophic scenario that “the world has feared for decades,” notes Yonatan Adiri in the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot. With navigation almost at a standstill, about 20% of the world’s oil consumption no longer passes through there. Fertilizer, helium, and aluminum are also affected.
In the long term, however, “Iran may well regret” having decided on this blockade, to which the United States responded with a counter-blockade. Because it has raised awareness of the need to find alternative ways to deprive Iran of this exorbitant economic leverage.
A long-identified vulnerability
In reality, the Strait of Hormuz has long been identified as a source of vulnerability for the Gulf countries, writes the editorialist of the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida, who recalls their numerous articles on this subject. The oldest date back to 2007 when it urged the countries in the region to negotiate with each other to establish an “oil duct through the coasts of Oman or a pipeline opening onto the Red Sea via Saudi Arabia.”
The Saudi east-west oil pipeline, which connects the oil fields of eastern Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea, has been completely
