The Strait of Hormuz has returned to the center of international diplomacy. France has tabled a draft resolution at the United Nations Security Council focused on securing the narrow waterway through which a significant share of the world’s oil flows, while Britain warned on Sunday of the danger posed by the Iranian regime to regional stability.
The French move comes as tensions in the Gulf remain elevated, with Tehran now in its 109th day of suspending its memorandum of understanding with the International Atomic Energy Agency. That freeze, imposed in the aftermath of the conflict that pitted Iran against the United States earlier this year, continues to weigh on international negotiations and feed Western suspicion over Tehran’s nuclear intentions.
On the economic front, the pressure campaign appears to be paying off for Washington. The US Treasury Secretary told Axios that the United States had facilitated the passage of 1.1 billion barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz in recent months, adding that for the first time since Iran began exporting crude, the country would have no oil at sea at all this week. Officials presented the figure as proof that sanctions aimed at choking off Iranian oil exports are working.
The French text, whose full contents have yet to be made public, is understood to aim at guaranteeing freedom of navigation through a corridor that carries roughly a fifth of the world’s oil. A string of maritime incidents in the region in recent months has revived fears of an escalation capable of disrupting global energy supplies for an extended period.
Britain, for its part, struck a sharper tone, cautioning that the Iranian government continues to pose risks to regional security. The alignment between Paris, London and Washington underscores a shared Western determination to keep coordinated pressure on Tehran, at a moment when the nuclear file and the stability of the Gulf remain tightly intertwined on the international diplomatic agenda.
