The Strait Iran Cannot Let Go Of

On March 4th, Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz closed. Not threatened, not contested, closed. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issued warnings over VHF radio telling vessels that no ship was permitted to pass, laid mines, boarded merchant traffic, and set up a toll system charging roughly a dollar a barrel for the ships it did allow through. Tanker traffic through the most important oil chokepoint on earth dropped more than ninety percent within days. The International Energy Agency called it the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market.