Iran risks overplaying its hand on Hormuz
Iran’s aggressive actions in the Strait of Hormuz risk long-term strategic losses, as neighbors are now developing alternative pipeline routes to bypass the waterway, ultimately diminishing Tehran's geopolitical leverage.
Attacks on shipping have spurred plans for pipeline alternatives.
Video footage taken from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards website claiming to show a missile launch aimed at US targets in the Gulf.
PHOTO: AFP
Javier Blas
Published
Let’s be honest. Iran has US President Donald Trump in a headlock over the Strait of Hormuz. The White House is fighting to reopen a waterway that wasn’t closed before the conflict started. But Tehran risks overplaying its hand: If it continues to squeeze, it will lose strategic leverage – not immediately, but over the next five years or so as its neighbours build more bypass routes.
Don’t take my word for it. Listen to what Iranian officials themselves say. “The strait is valuable while the traffic through it increases day by day, not when it decreases,” Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the Iranian Parliament Speaker and top negotiator, told state television earlier in July. “We must not turn the strait against itself.”
source: The Straits Times https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/iran-risks-overplaying-its-hand-on-hormuz?ref=top-stories