America’s Allies Must Tell Iran: A Hormuz Toll Will Lead To War | Opinion
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0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. There were legitimate criticisms of the U.S. campaign against Iran earlier this year. President Donald Trump acted with characteristic impulsiveness and failed to coordinate with allies after spending years alienating them. Few leaders were eager to rally behind such an unreliable messenger. That debate, however, has been overtaken by events.
Iran is no longer just confronting America over nuclear ambitions or terrorist proxies —which is bad enough—but insisting on extracting tolls from navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the planet's most indispensable waterways. This directly challenges a foundation of the international order: the principle that the seas remain open to all.
On February 28, reasonable people could disagree about whether Trump's handling of Iran deserved international support. Today, the question is whether the world community will tolerate economic blackmail against every nation that depends on maritime commerce.
Hormuz is not an Iranian asset but the narrow sea corridor through which a fifth of the world's oil exports and vast quantities of liquefied natural gas pass. If Tehran transforms it into an "ayatollbooth," it will establish a dangerous precedent: that a regime controlling a strategic waterway may extort the world for political and financial gain.
Nations disagree on countless issues, but they have generally recognized that commerce cannot function if every narrow passage becomes the private property of whichever government happens to occupy its shores. Accepting Iran's claim would weaken that principle everywhere—from the Strait of Malacca between Malaysia and Indonesia or Bab el-Mandeb on the Red Sea to the Bosporus and the Panama Canal—inviting other efforts to exploit geography against global commerce .
Moreover, Iran is now insisting, with limitless audacity, that ships refrain from navigating close to the Omani coast—even though those waters indisputably belong to Oman. The jaw drops at the sheer brazenness of the demand. That it comes after a military thrashing shows how badly Trump miscalculated the nature of the regime, and how well it played on the fissures in the global community.
This is why the Western alliance should now abandon ambiguity. NATO should publicly and unambiguously declare that any Iranian attempt to impose fees of any kind on international shipping through the Strait of Hormuz will be regarded as a casus belli . That need not mean immediate war; the purpose of such a declaration would be deterrence—but the alliance should plan for action in case the Iranian regime fails to get the point.
Nor should this message come only from the West. India, whose economy depends heavily on Gulf energy supplies, has every reason to join in, and so do the Arab states. Iran should be disabused of any notion that this is a bilateral quarrel with a globally unpopular U.S. government but rather a confrontation with the international community.
At the very least, that confrontation should take the form of a hermetic sea, land, and air blockade of Iran. It may take months to bring down the regime this way—or to bring it to heel—and in that time there will be global economic pain. If so, there is no choice. Leaders will have to lead, and explain this to the people.
Some Western governments may still recoil at appearing to stand beside Trump. Their distaste is understandable—Trump’s declaration this week of 50 percent tariffs on Canada is another poke in the eye—and he has yet to apologize for his preposterous threats to—in effect—attack NATO member Denmark over Greenland. But freedom of the seas is a separate and hugely important issue.
The arrival of Andy Burnham in Downing Street offers an opportunity to demonstrate an understanding of the urgency. The new British prime minister is understandably focused on domestic renewal. But his country—the fabled “Britannia” that “ruled the waves”—has always claimed a special responsibility for defending maritime order. If Burnham wishes to signal that Britain matters beyond its shores—to Make Anglia Great Again —he should start by stating plainly that the United Kingdom will stand with its allies on this matter.
Much more should be demanded of the mafia that controls Iran. Tehran must understand that for the world community, its outrageous demands are a bridge too far, and if it’s a fight they desire, it is a fight that they will get.
Dan Perry is the former London-based Europe-Africa Editor and Cairo-based Middle East Editor of The Associated Press, chairman of the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem and the author of two books
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