The Iranian ships pass through the Strait of Hormuz – and the United States refrains from interfering

During the war, Iran closed the passage through the Strait of Hormuz to vessels belonging to its allies of the United States, but at the same time it itself is moving dozens of ships and millions of barrels of oil through the strait, according to companies that monitor ship traffic. Despite the war, the United States refrains from attacking those oil tankers – so as not to lead to another increase in oil prices.

About 90 ships with millions of barrels have crossed the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the war, the Associated Press reported, based on data from ship tracking companies. According to estimates, most of these ships are related to Iran or its allies, such as India, China and Pakistan. Iran has managed to export more than 16 million barrels of oil since the beginning of the month, with most of it going to China.

All this while the Iranian regime has promised to sink any “enemy” ship that crosses the strait, and has attacked more than 10 ships since the beginning of the war. In recent days, the price of oil crossed the threshold of $100 per barrel, an increase of about 40% since the beginning of the war – which affects the entire global economy and exerts heavy political and economic pressure on the President of the United States, Donald Trump.

Despite the war and the intense attacks by the American military against many targets throughout Iran, the United States refrains from attacking the Iranian oil tankers crossing the strait. The reason: the supply of Iranian oil helps moderate the rise in prices in markets around the world.

This policy was explicitly stated by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant in an interview with CNBC last night. “The Iranian ships are crossing, and we are letting it happen to ensure supplies to the rest of the world,” Besant clarified.

In recent days, Trump has been trying to form a coalition to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to ship passage. He appealed to a long list of countries in the West, but most of them rejected his call and made it clear that they would not intervene in the war. The president also turned to China, which provided a vague answer and, according to estimates, has no intention of helping the United States reopen the strait closed by its ally Tehran.

Beijing is apparently less worried than other countries about the closure of the strait in view of the fact that some of the Iranian oil still reaches them. In recent days, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has called on “all parties to immediately stop military operations and avoid further escalation that will affect the global economy.”

Meanwhile, President Trump announced that he would delay his political visit to China, emphasizing that “I have a very good relationship with China.” In Beijing they clarified that there is no connection between the request for assistance in opening the Strait of Hormuz and the postponement of the president’s visit.

The United States Army attacked tonight Iranian missile sites near the Strait of Hormuz, using bunker-penetrating bombs weighing more than 2.2 tons. According to the US Central Command announcement, the targets included missile arrays that threatened the freedom of navigation in the area. The move is taking place against the background of American efforts to establish an international coalition to secure the strait, in the shadow of threats from Tehran that “the situation in the area will not return to what it was before the war”.