Iran has effectively halted all traffic of petroleum through the Strait of Hormuz, where nearly 20 percent of global commercial crude oil and natural gas typically passes, in response to the ongoing US-Israeli strikes against the country. The closure has skyrocketed gas prices, with no end in sight.
For my piece published today, Jeff Colgan, an expert on oil in international politics and war, told me that the Trump administration has aggressively implemented the US policy of old, where it deployed military forces and federal agencies to control oil worldwide. It happened when Trump captured and imprisoned Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and it’s happening today in Iran.
The result is an administration that does not appear to have devised a plan for a possible Strait of Hormuz closure before striking Iran, and likely still does not have one. What an avoidable mess.
—Alex Nguyen
No comments:
Post a Comment