US MILITARY ENFORCING BLOCKADE BY INTERCEPTING TRAFFIC IN GULF OF OMAN

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is reporting that US naval forces have forced eight vessels departing and entering Iranian ports to stop and turn back.

Citing officials, the WSJ reported that, in every instance, US forces contacted the crews via radio and instructed them to reverse course.

All the tankers complied with the orders, and no boardings were necessary, it added.

US Central Command has said that not a single ship has got through.

We were hearing differently yesterday – that one ship might have got through the blockade – but it seems that it only got through the Strait of Hormuz itself and is now stuck on the other side of it, in front of the blockade.

CENTCOM said they sent six vessels back the way they came, and that these ships went when they were ordered to.

The US has gathered a huge naval force to try and enforce this blockade, including more than a dozen warships, dozens of aircraft, and more than 10,000 personnel there, whether they be Marines or soldiers or airmen, who are all working together to keep this blockade going. That’s obviously quite an expense.

And it’s also a diplomatic expense.

A lot of Iranian oil, for example, goes towards China. That’s Iran’s biggest customer, and about a third of China’s domestic oil needs are met from Iran. So the longer this goes on, the more those needs aren’t going to be met.

Will that then make China put pressure on Iran to negotiate with the United States, or just anger that country? We don’t know yet.

So there is a gamble here. And there is also a sense that the longer that this blockade goes on, the more it makes things economically worse for the global energy market – but also for the United States.

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, says that Moscow could help make up energy shortages in China amid the ongoing US blockade on Iranian ports.

“Russia can undoubtedly make up for the resource deficit that has emerged, both for the People’s Republic of China and for all countries willing to work with us in a fair and mutually beneficial manner,” Lavrov told reporters in Beijing, after meeting China’s President Xi Jinping.

Lavrov said relations between Russia and China “remain unshakeable in the face of all storms” and the ties between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Xi contribute to their countries’ “high degree of resilience in the face of the shocks that have shaken the world”.

 China is the biggest buyer of Iran’s oil, and the US has said that Beijing will not be able to buy Iranian oil amid the continuing blockade.

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