President Donald Trump says the US Navy is clearing Iranian mines from the Strait of Hormuz, a vital sea route for oil shipments whose disruption is increasingly threatening the global economy.
Sweeping for underwater explosives could take months despite a tenuous ceasefire between the United States and Iran in the weekslong war, experts say. Any future claims that the US cleared the waterway where 20 per cent of the world’s oil typically passes might fail to convince commercial freighters and their insurers that it is finally safe.
“You don’t even have to have laid mines – you just have to make people believe that you’ve laid mines,” said Emma Salisbury, a scholar at the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s National Security Program.
“And even if the US sweeps the strait and says everything’s clear, all the Iranians have to do is say, Well, actually, you haven’t found them all yet,'” said Salisbury, who is also a fellow at the Royal Navy Strategic Studies Centre. “There’s only so mu​President Donald Trump says the US Navy is clearing Iranian mines from the Strait of Hormuz, a vital sea route for oil shipments whose disruption is increasingly threatening the global economy.
Sweeping for underwater explosives could take months despite a tenuous ceasefire between the United States and Iran in the weekslong war, experts say. Any future claims that the US cleared the waterway where 20 per cent of the world’s oil typically passes might fail to convince commercial freighters and their insurers that it is finally safe.
“You don’t even have to have laid mines – you just have to make people believe that you’ve laid mines,” said Emma Salisbury, a scholar at the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s National Security Program.
“And even if the US sweeps the strait and says everything’s clear, all the Iranians have to do is say, Well, actually, you haven’t found them all yet,'” said Salisbury, who is also a fellow at the Royal Navy Strategic Studies Centre. “There’s only so mu ​Latest News [ SOBAN NEWS: International and National ]
