Vital Oil Route Effectively Closed

The war involving Iran, Israel and the United States has effectively shut down shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important energy corridors.

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The narrow waterway off Iran’s coast connects the Persian Gulf to global markets and carries a significant share of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas.

With traffic through the passage now severely disrupted, gasoline prices have begun rising worldwide as energy supplies tighten.

Governments are already discussing plans to reopen the strait once the fighting subsides.

International Plans to Restore Shipping

In Europe, Emmanuel Macron is leading an international effort to prepare for the reopening of the shipping route.

The France president has proposed deploying naval forces to escort oil tankers and cargo vessels through the strait once conditions allow.

The idea is to ensure that energy shipments and global trade can resume safely after hostilities ease.

However, military analysts warn that attempting such an operation while fighting continues would be extremely dangerous.

Retired French naval officer Pascal Ausseur said sending ships through the strait during active conflict would leave them highly exposed.

“In today’s context, sending warships or civilian vessels into the Strait of Hormuz would be suicidal,” he said.

Even if a ceasefire were agreed, he added, the situation would remain risky.

Lessons From Red Sea Operations

Naval forces from several countries already have experience protecting commercial shipping in hostile waters.

Warships from France, United States and United Kingdom have previously escorted merchant vessels through attacks in the Red Sea carried out by Iran-backed Houthi militants from Yemen.

During those operations, warships used a combination of machine guns, naval cannons and advanced air-defence systems to intercept incoming missiles and drones.

For example, the French frigate French frigate Alsace shot down three ballistic missiles while escorting a container ship in 2024.

Its commander at the time, Jérôme Henry, said repeated attacks placed intense pressure on crews and left sailors with little rest.

Iran Presents Greater Threat

Experts warn that reopening the Strait of Hormuz could prove far more difficult than protecting shipping in the Red Sea.

Iran possesses a significantly more advanced military than the Houthi forces that targeted vessels in recent years.

According to assessments by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, Iran has anti-ship cruise missiles capable of reaching vessels throughout the strait and nearby waters.

The country also has access to drones, naval mines, long-range missiles and fast attack craft that could be used to target shipping.

Retired French vice admiral Michel Olhagaray said the level of threat would require a much larger and more sophisticated military presence to counter.

Before commercial vessels could safely return, he said, many of Iran’s offensive systems along the coastline would likely need to be neutralised.

No Quick Solution

Even with military escorts and surveillance, analysts say reopening the strait safely would require extensive monitoring and intelligence gathering.

Navies would need to maintain constant patrols and carefully track potential threats before allowing tankers to resume transit.

Until hostilities decline significantly, Olhagaray warned, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz will remain extremely hazardouss

“That will not happen at all — not at all — in the near future,” he said.

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  Adapted by ASEAN Now · Source · 11.03 2026

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What do they French know about this, it's not as if they have deployed their navy like the British have..oh..ah..umh..wait a bit...

It will take a major international effort to create the conditions whereby navigation in the straits can be resumed.

No point expecting the Americans to do anything, apart from having created the problem in the first place, such efforts require a sustained, coordinated, thought through approach, which is not exactly a trademark of current US defence (sorry I should have said "WAR yeehaw"!) policy. Besides Trump and Whiskey Pete are probably only interested in bombing the living daylights out of the area and it's inhabitants!

The British are very clearly not in a position to do anything vaguely naval for probably several years, if ever again.

The French are making tentative noises about doing something, probably with the support of other European nations. Let them crack on, we (the UK) should support them. Playing a subsidiary role in European naval affairs; a bitter pill but we have rather allowed it to happen to ourselves...

Trump has never successfully ran a business.

Now it's clear he can't successfully run a country.

Many, including myself, predicted it.

8 hours ago, ASEAN NOW News said:

With traffic through the passage now severely disrupted, gasoline prices have begun rising worldwide as energy supplies tighten.

Yet 11-12 days in and diesel price here in Thailand is still the same as before.

What a country ! 👍👍👍

In some euro counties it is over 2 E/liter 😋

12 hours ago, ASEAN NOW News said:

Before commercial vessels could safely return, he said, many of Iran’s offensive systems along the coastline would likely need to be neutralised.

The anti-ship cruise missiles are hidden, just come out to fire, so are difficult to eliminate. This BBC analysis broatcast today was very informative:

There seems little doubt the Iran's aim is to ****-up the World's economy and point the finger of blame (quite fairly) at Trump.

He will cave, but claim he's chosen to end the war having decisively won it....but will Iran stop?

Trump's costly obsession with aiding and abetting Netanyahu can't be religious fervour, which leaves the notion that it was Mossad that hacked the US DoJ and they have all the videos.

7 minutes ago, MIke B Bad said:

There seems little doubt the Iran's aim is to ****-up the World's economy

Well then Iran could just stay put, or you think they are helping Trump achieving his own goal.

Last year, the Americans had 4 minesweepers in the Gulf, based at Bahrain, to be replaced by Gucci looking but crap (according to those in the Navy) Independance class LCS, modifed with a pack called the RMMV, which has a history of not really working. The ships themselves have a track record of developing hull cracks, not great when you are surrounded by water. The old but perfectly adequate Avenger class minesweepers weren't even mothballed, they have been hastily scrapped.

The British had a couple of minesweepers, and a support ship, and also withdrew these at the end of the year, with a capability to be replaced by a fairly experimental autonomous system, the Harrier (looks like a small harbour tender). Now I'm assuming both Navies, last year, were assessing threats and resource deployments, and must have determined that the threat of Iran mining the straits was sufficiently lowered that they could call to an end a 47 year mission, or at least relax a little.

This has the makings of a debacle. The US Navy is now refusing escort duties, because the straits are now deemed too dangerous for them. The President has been reduced to begging the Iranians to remove their mines (which they can't, because the Americans have sank all their ships that had some kind of minesweeping capability). The Straits have an unusual current system that makes minesweeping very challenging.

The is what happens when it is landlubbers doing the planning.

The UAE had one minesweeper. The Houthis broke it. As far as I can see, the rest of the GCC states, despite 47 years of the Mullahs, don't have a single minesweeper between them. Even Bangladesh has more, a decent little fleet of ex Royal Navy vessals. And Bangladesh hasn't a pot to piss in. The Arabs though own a lot of football teams and race horses, and give away Jumbo Jets to the needy.

Pakistan has a squadron of minesweepers. Pay them, pay them lots of money. I'd get the Bangladeshis involved as well, they could do with the cash. India is kind of an ally to Iran, on the basis that they hate Pakistan. They have a very good capability. 3 navies, properly organised, and making sure they also had the unsexy boats, rather than the kit bristling with guns.

16 minutes ago, MIke B Bad said:

There seems little doubt the Iran's aim is to ****-up the World's economy and point the finger of blame (quite fairly) at Trump.

He will cave, but claim he's chosen to end the war having decisively won it....but will Iran stop?

Trump's costly obsession with aiding and abetting Netanyahu can't be religious fervour, which leaves the notion that it was Mossad that hacked the US DoJ and they have all the videos.

Given who Epstein probably worked for, and his Mentor, do you think they needed to hack the DoJ? And all those emails, have a sender and receiver. They don't just exist in one place.

18 minutes ago, MIke B Bad said:

There seems little doubt the Iran's aim is to ****-up the World's economy and point the finger of blame (quite fairly) at Trump.

He will cave, but claim he's chosen to end the war having decisively won it....but will Iran stop?

Trump's costly obsession with aiding and abetting Netanyahu can't be religious fervour, which leaves the notion that it was Mossad that hacked the US DoJ and they have all the videos.

Iran has already stated what they need to stop hostilities. A fairly simple concept, blood money.

A post with a trolling meme has been removed as the post was of low value:

13. Low-Value Posts - Posts that add no written contribution are not allowed.

    This includes emoji-only replies, very short comments, memes, GIFs, screenshots, or embedded social media posts without explanation or opinion.

China and Russia are laughing.

Whilst the US are burning through their arsenal of air defense rockets the Chinese are building up their strategic arsenal of any kind of attack equipment at breakneck speed. Russia already changed to a war based economy which is, thanks to Trump, suddenly very affordable.

Markets are slow, but they will realize within this year that the US is doomed, see the plummeting bond markets. Not long, and in addition to high energy prices it will crash the US stock market as well...

1 minute ago, zappalot said:

China and Russia are laughing.

Whilst the US are burning through their arsenal of air defense rockets the Chinese are building up their strategic arsenal of any kind of attack equipment at breakneck speed. Russia already changed to a war based economy which is, thanks to Trump, suddenly very affordable.

Markets are slow, but they will realize within this year that the US is doomed, see the plummeting bond markets. Not long, and in addition to high energy prices it will crash the US stock market as well...

Russia's war economy is far from sustainable. Half of the federal budget is allocated to attempts to subdue Ukraine.

5 minutes ago, Fact said:

Russia's war economy is far from sustainable. Half of the federal budget is allocated to attempts to subdue Ukraine.

Trump just boosted Russia's income by more than 40%...

1 minute ago, zappalot said:

Trump just boosted Russia's income by more than 40%...

This will be short-lived.

10 minutes ago, zappalot said:

Trump just boosted Russia's income by more than 40%...

How are Russian and Chinese air defense systems functioning for Iran? 

If the West initiated an air campaign in Ukraine against Russia, they could defeat the entire Russian army in two weeks.

32 minutes ago, Fact said:

This will be short-lived.

Yes, it will be 80% at soon...

15 hours ago, gargamon said:

Trump has never successfully ran a business.

Now it's clear he can't successfully run a country.

Many, including myself, predicted it.

The USA is going very well. High GDP, low inflation, low unemployment. You're a pensioner. Trump killed the top dog in 1 day. Bush and Obama took 10 years.

40 minutes ago, zappalot said:

Trump just boosted Russia's income by more than 40%...

Huh? How so?

20 minutes ago, khaosokman said:

Huh? How so?

They are exporting lots of oil. I thought it is logical, you export oil for 70, then for 100, your income ups by 40%.

Actually more, since e.g. India is relying more on Russian oil now then before Trumps war...

23 minutes ago, khaosokman said:

The USA is going very well. High GDP, low inflation, low unemployment. You're a pensioner. Trump killed the top dog in 1 day. Bush and Obama took 10 years.

So far NOTHING changed in Iran, just the US is depleting their defense weapon arsenal, so things are going well for China/Russia/Iran/North Korea...

Does anyone really thinks killing the leader did change anything? What is the name of the new leader...?

1 minute ago, zappalot said:

What is the name of the new leader...?

DOA.

11 minutes ago, zappalot said:

They are exporting lots of oil. I thought it is logical, you export oil for 70, then for 100, your income ups by 40%.

Actually more, since e.g. India is relying more on Russian oil now then before Trumps war...

So oil is 100% of gdp according to you? Lol

10 minutes ago, zappalot said:

So far NOTHING changed in Iran, just the US is depleting their defense weapon arsenal, so things are going well for China/Russia/Iran/North Korea...

Does anyone really thinks killing the leader did change anything? What is the name of the new leader...?

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency estimated the death toll at 7,000, the Iranian government said it was 3,117, while Donald Trump and various Iranian health officials said it was 32,000 people.

Venezuela got to Trump's head. Then the Zionists and neocons around him, and their Israeli masters, stroked his ego some more.

Sir, you just say the word and this gonna be one weekend of asss whoopin the Airainians. Just one week and it'll be over and then by popular demand we'll start drillin your bust on Mt. Rushmore. You the man, sir, you the man.

And the idiot fell for it. But Iranians didn't. And now they're handing out the ass whoopin. Sure, Israel-US is blowing up schools, hospitals and police stations but the Iranians are blowing up the meaty stuff, US bases, radar installations, oil infra, and most of Israel and the weaselly Arab GCC. And only small fish under 1kg are allowed through the Strait of Hormuz. Yet to launch: Iran's next gen missiles and hypersonics, of which there are thousands in underground missile cities.

Iran's got Trump by his crinkly balls. And they ain't letting go.

2 minutes ago, Autocan said:

Venezuela got to Trump's head. Then the Zionists and neocons around him, and their Israeli masters, stroked his ego some more.

Sir, you just say the word and this gonna be one weekend of asss whoopin the Airainians. Just one week and it'll be over and then by popular demand we'll start drillin your bust on Mt. Rushmore. You the man, sir, you the man.

And the idiot fell for it. But Iranians didn't. And now they're handing out the ass whoopin. Sure, Israel-US is blowing up schools, hospitals and police stations but the Iranians are blowing up the meaty stuff, US bases, radar installations, oil infra, and most of Israel and the weaselly Arab GCC. And only small fish under 1kg are allowed through the Strait of Hormuz. Yet to launch: Iran's next gen missiles and hypersonics, of which there are thousand in underground missile cities.

Iran's got Trump by his crinkly balls. And they ain't letting go.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency estimated the death toll at 7,000, the Iranian government said it was 3,117, while Donald Trump and various Iranian health officials said it was 32,000 people.

Yeah it sounds like Iran is winning not.

• Command Structure: The military's leadership was largely decapitated in the initial February 28 strikes, which killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the Defense Minister, the Armed Forces Chief of Staff, and the IRGC Commander.

• Air Capabilities: Iran is described as "losing air capability day by day". The joint forces have established air dominance, allowing them to operate with "impunity" over Iranian airspace after suppressing most integrated air defenses.

• Missile and Drone Force:

  • Launcher Attrition: Roughly one-third of Iran's ballistic missile launchers have been destroyed, with another third rendered inoperable.

  • Launch Tempo: Retaliatory missile salvos have declined by approximately 70% to 90% since the start of the conflict.

  • Stockpiles: Estimates suggest Iran has fewer than 160 active launchers and 1,500 missiles remaining. 

3 hours ago, khaosokman said:

• Command Structure: The military's leadership was largely decapitated in the initial February 28 strikes, which killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the Defense Minister, the Armed Forces Chief of Staff, and the IRGC Commander.

• Air Capabilities: Iran is described as "losing air capability day by day". The joint forces have established air dominance, allowing them to operate with "impunity" over Iranian airspace after suppressing most integrated air defenses.

• Missile and Drone Force:

  • Launcher Attrition: Roughly one-third of Iran's ballistic missile launchers have been destroyed, with another third rendered inoperable.

  • Launch Tempo: Retaliatory missile salvos have declined by approximately 70% to 90% since the start of the conflict.

  • Stockpiles: Estimates suggest Iran has fewer than 160 active launchers and 1,500 missiles remaining. 

This presumes that "Intelligence" knows how many launchers etc they had to start off with. Intelligence didn't know a school was no longer part of a naval base. Intelligence determined that the threat of sea mines was so low they didn't need proven effective minesweepers, preferring at best, experimental systems, at worst, cut price Temu efforts.

Intelligence said they were expecting an attack on the WTC and Pentagon in 2001. Intelligence told us we were 45 minutes from an Iraqi nucear strike.

Conformational bias means you interpret a sudden and dramatic drop in missile launches as proof of a stupendous bombing campaign. Problem is that doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

6 hours ago, Bagwain said:

You need to stop listening to Septic propaganda. Maybe just maybe this is part of Irainian planning. The shift to bigger, faster & more accurate missiles?

It is AI. Better than random pensioners online.

12 minutes ago, khaosokman said:

It is AI. Better than random pensioners online.

Age brings wisdom

What you lack in wisdom you make up for in noise.

I recommend connecting your brain to your typing hand.