My colleague Mary Chastain noted in her recent report that President Donald Trump’s team was weighing a takeover of the critical shipping lane of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a vast amount of global oil supply flows.
This development follows on the heels of continuing military targeting covered by our talented Vijeta Uniyal.
I would like to focus on the Strait for a moment, as I noted in an earlier report that Trump ordered a US agency to provide insurance for companies willing to sail through the region. That plan is moving forward.
The U.S. will provide reinsurance for losses up to $20 billion in the Gulf region, to help provide confidence for oil and gas shippers during the war on Iran, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation said on Friday.President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered the DFC to provide political risk insurance and financial guarantees for maritime trade in the Gulf after oil and liquefied natural gas tanker transit had ground to a halt in the Strait of Hormuz waterway off Iran, where ordinarily 20% of global oil moves daily.
Meanwhile, one Greek shipping tycoon is having his ships turn off their transponders and sail on through despite Iranian threats.
At least five ships owned by George Prokopiou’s company Dynacom Tankers have travelled through the 30-mile wide narrows at the mouth of the Gulf since the war began, according to maritime analytics specialist Kpler.Crews have allegedly been ordered to turn off the transponders on the vessels before entering the strait in order to make them harder to hit.Ship-tracking websites showed them disappearing from view as they approached the waterway before reappearing on the other side after their transponders were reactivated….The high-risk strategy has not been limited to loaded tankers carrying oil from the Gulf – even empty ships have passed through from the east.One such tanker, the 72,000-metric ton Athina, appears to have crossed through the strait unladen on Saturday night, loaded up in Bahrain and departed two days later.
Shipping experts note that this move is high-stakes for those involved.
Industry brokers told the Financial Times that Prokopiou’s decision represents a rare and risky strategy at a time when many shipowners are suspending operations.“Most shipowners have frozen transits until the situation calms down,” one broker said. “But there are a few ‘privateers’ willing to take the risk.”The heightened tensions in the region — a critical route for global oil supplies — have made the Strait of Hormuz one of the most dangerous shipping lanes in the world.Despite the risks, the potential financial gains are enormous. According to energy intelligence firm Argus Media, freight rates for oil tankers have surged dramatically.
How is Iran’s regime handling these developments? By trying to bribe other countries into distancing themselves from the U.S. and Israel.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has issued a message suggesting that countries distancing themselves diplomatically from Israel and the United States could be granted unrestricted passage through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most strategically important oil shipping routes.According to Iranian state media, the IRGC said that any Arab or European nation that expels the ambassadors of Israel and the United States from its territory would, starting the following day, be given “full authority and freedom” to transit the strait.The statement appears to be part of Tehran’s broader effort to pressure governments to take a political stance against Washington and Israel amid the escalating conflict that has drawn the region into a wider confrontation.
Iran’s mullahs thought they could weaponize the Strait of Hormuz; instead, Trump turned their maritime choke point into a pressure point on their crumbling regime and its enablers.
As Washington underwrites safe passage and “privateer” tankers steam through silently with transponders off, the ayatollahs are reduced to offering bribery coupons for “safe passage” to any government willing to dump U.S. and Israeli diplomats, advertising weakness to friend and foe alike.
When a terror-sponsoring theocracy is begging for boycotts of America in exchange for not shooting at tankers, it’s not projecting strength—it’s signaling that the real blockade is closing in on Tehran, not on the Strait.
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