Continuing Crisis in Strait of Hormuz: Why Iran's Hold is Illegal and U.S. Military Force Alone Fails
Over a month into the conflict between Israel, Iran, and the United States, Iran has shown no sign of losing its capacity to control the Strait of Hormuz. Although the United States has agreed to a two-week suspension of strikes against Iran, Tehran continues to exercise de facto control over the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s Foreign Minister has declared that vessels seeking to transit the Strait must coordinate directly with Iranian armed forces, subject to unspecified “technical limitations”—a posture that amounts to a unilateral assertion of sovereign authority over one of the world’s most critical maritime chokepoints. Meanwhile, President Trump has pledged that the United States “will be helping with traffic buildup in the Strait,” but that commitment remains undefined, and it is far from certain whether U.S. naval forces will play any role. Since the conflict started, Iran has rerouted commercial shipping through Iranian territorial waters and imposed a $2 million transit fee—an illegal “Tehran toll booth.” The fragile ceasefire does not appear to dismantle that arrangement.
The United States must define the operational scope of its naval commitment in the Strait. And Iran’s self-declared “technical limitations” must be rejected outright by the international community and not be made permanent. Limiting transit passage through the Strait of Hormuz is inconsistent with the freedom of navigation guaranteed under international law.
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If the Strait is to truly reopen, it will require more than demonstrations of military power. It will require a coordinated multinational effort to restore confidence in maritime transit, likely including naval escorts, insurance backstops, and sustained diplomatic engagement with regional actors. Ideally, the United States would lead this effort, but the Trump administration has isolated NATO and other core Allies with threats to attack Greenland, imposing massive tariffs, and insulting nations with ad hominem attacks. Never has the United States been so isolated. In a promising sign, last week Britain organized 40 foreign ministers to discuss ways to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, an important first step that should be built upon. All options should be on the table, including reflagging tankers and conducting convoy operations that were used with some success in the 1988 Tanker Wars. Tragically, none of that appears to be on the horizon. Just incendiary Truth Social posts without sustained diplomatic engagement and U.S. leadership as we lurch from one crisis to another. And it is simply too dangerous to transit the Strait with Iranian military opposition and the threat of a missile or drone strike on a tanker. Most importantly, opening the Strait requires a negotiated outcome that preserves the legal regime of transit passage without conceding to Iran’s attempt to rewrite it.
In sum, the U.S. appears to be solving the wrong problem. The United States has been applying force to defeat Iranian capabilities, when the actual problem is Iran’s ability to impose risk at scale. Until a real resolution is reached, the uncomfortable truth remains: geography, not firepower, is dictating outcomes in the Strait of Hormuz—and Iran is exploiting that reality with increasing effectiveness.
FEATURED IMAGE: A large oil tanker emits smoke while sailing through the Strait of Hormuz, Persian Gulf, Iran, June 2020. (Germán Vogel/Getty Images)
About the Author
Mark P. Nevitt
Mark P. Nevitt (Bluesky - LinkedIn - X) Commander, JAGC (ret.) is an Associate Professor of Law at Emory University School of Law. He was previously the Class of 1971 Distinguished Military Professor of Leadership & Law at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, Associate Professor at Syracuse University College of Law, and the Sharswood Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
https://www.justsecurity.org/135899/strait-hormuz-tolls-crisis/
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