The Capabilities and Global Implications of Blockage of Iran - Research Paper Example

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The Strait of Hormuz narrows down to two ways, in its north, it links to Iran and in its south, it links to Oman. The Strait of Hormuz is located sandwiched between the Omani Musandam Peninsula and Iran. The Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman are linked with the help of this strait. By taking out a median and other calculated analyses, the Strait of Hormuz extends to a length of 140 miles. However, the Strait gets narrowed down to ‘twenty nautical miles’ towards the northeast ending that is between Iran and Oman.

China is the biggest exporter of Iranian oil, which uses the Strait of Hormuz for navigation of its ships to and from the strait. The US and other western countries also use this track for the transportation of oil. Many other countries of the world also use this strait. For safe transportation of oil supply, the US has implanted its military forces, so it is well equipped in the Gulf region. There cannot be a second opinion about US dominance in the region currently.

Iranian officials openly threatened the world to close the Strait of Hormuz, which is a major artery of the world oil market as a result of oil sanctions imposed on Iran. According to oil experts, disruption of oil through the aforementioned route could significantly hamper global oil prices. Most of the oil flows go to Asia via this route. The oil market is globally well-knitted and a disruption anywhere could cause higher oil prices everywhere. Internationally, the threat announcement made by Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz is taken very seriously and all the countries have disapproved of Iran’s threatening statements. The future implications in case the threat is implemented in actuality will be economic as well as military. As far as the capability of Iran is concerned in terms of closing the strait, there is a joint consensus that it would have no problem in implementing the threat, but the situation is the same with the US. The US, as a dominant force in the strait, could not allow Iran to close the strait. Therefore, both the states are quite powerful in a conflict on the strait. ...Download file to see next pages Read More