Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi declared Wednesday that Tehran had "no intention of returning to the pre-war status quo" regarding the Strait of Hormuz, signaling that Iran views the world's most critical energy chokepoint as a permanent bargaining chip.
Iran's sovereignty ends at its territorial waters © Mena Today
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi declared Wednesday that Tehran had "no intention of returning to the pre-war status quo" regarding the Strait of Hormuz, signaling that Iran views the world's most critical energy chokepoint as a permanent bargaining chip.
There is one fundamental problem with that position: the Strait of Hormuz does not belong to Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway, just 33 kilometers wide at its narrowest point, connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. It is bordered by Iran to the north and Oman to the south, with the United Arab Emirates controlling part of the eastern shore.
Through this sliver of water passes approximately 20% of the world's oil supply and 30% of global liquefied natural gas, making it the single most strategically important maritime chokepoint on the planet.
The Legal Reality
Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the Strait of Hormuz has the status of an international strait used for navigation, meaning all ships and aircraft enjoy an unconditional right of transit passage.
No country - not Iran, not Oman, not the UAE - can legally block this passage in peacetime. Iran and Oman each exercise sovereignty over their respective territorial waters within the strait, but that sovereignty does not extend to the right of closure.
Iran has consistently challenged this interpretation, arguing it has the right to control and restrict traffic. That position is rejected by virtually every maritime nation and international legal body in the world.
Iran's Closure: A War Crime Dressed as Strategy
Since shutting the strait at the start of the conflict, Iran has declared it would "not allow a single litre of oil" to reach the United States, Israel or their partners. Iran's parliament speaker has already declared the situation "will never return to pre-war conditions."
The consequences have been immediate and global. Oil prices soared, trading within a whisker of $120 per barrel, before easing to around $92 per barrel, still up $20 for the month.
Shipping insurance costs have skyrocketed. Global supply chains are under severe stress. And countries with no involvement in the US-Israeli-Iranian conflict, from India to Japan, from South Korea to Europe, are paying the price for Tehran's unilateral decision to weaponize a waterway that the world shares.
The Post-War Question
Araqchi has proposed that after the war, Gulf-bordering countries draft a new protocol for the strait , one aligned with "Iranian and regional interests."
Translation: Tehran wants to institutionalize its control over an international waterway it has no legal right to close, using the leverage of war to rewrite rules that have governed global maritime trade for decades.
The international community's response will define whether the laws of the sea survive this conflict intact, or whether Iran succeeds in establishing a dangerous precedent that any sufficiently aggressive coastal state can hold the world's energy supply hostage.
The strait does not belong to Iran. But Iran is acting as if it does, and the world is still paying the bill.
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