London, January 25: The UK foreign secretary claims that Iran’s possible closure of the strategic Strait of Hormuz in response to the EU oil embargo against Tehran would be ‘illegal’ and ‘unsuccessful.’
William Hague’s comments were made in response to an urgent question from Conservative MP Robert Halfon in the House of Commons on the question of European Union sanctions imposed on Iran oil exports on Monday.
“Sanctions are a means to an end not an end in themselves”, said the foreign secretary.
Hague may fully understand that the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important oil transit artery, falls within the territorial waters of Iran and Oman.
He may also completely know that any vessel seeking to access the Persian Gulf should pass through Iranian territorial waters to reach the western side of the Strait.
Nonetheless, vessels can use Omani waters to sail when in the east of the Strait, some 92 kilometers westward and into the Persian Gulf, shipping lanes run directly through the Islamic Republic’s territorial waters off the Iranian islands of the Greater and Lesser Tunb, and Abu Mussa.
Moreover, the only access route for bigger ships including aircraft carriers is passing between the Tunb islands and Abu Musa.
According to the 1958 Geneva Convention on the Law of the Sea, Iran can suspend the passage from the Strait of Hormuz for the countries that impose sanctions against the Iranian oil and gas imports and exports, and it’s among Iran’s legitimate rights to shutter the waterway.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has said time and again in the past that if it is put in serious danger it will close the Strait of Hormuz, which is the export channel for 40 percent of the oil production of the entire region.
However, despite the US government that has not ratified the Convention on the Law of the Sea, Iran is committed to the convention and it considers the transit passage as only for those nations, who have ratified it.
According to the declaration that Iran has issued at the time of signing the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, as far as the transit passage was concerned was that the new rights were based on the contract and therefore they extended only to those who accept all commitments coming from the 1982 convention, and that it did not extend to those who are not the members.
Iran believes that its enemies have to know they do not possess all the chess pieces on the board. If Tehran is due to be deprived of its oil exports or faces paralyzing sanctions, the Strait of Hormuz will not be secure to tankers and ships carrying commercial goods or weapons to and from its enemies.
A senior Iranian lawmaker has said that the Islamic Republic has the right to shutter the strategic Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for oil sanctions on Tehran.
Heshmatollah Falahapisheh said a closure of the strait — the passageway for one fifth of the world’s oil supply — is an increasing possibility.
——Agencies