Mines across one of the world’s most strategically important waterways. Western-made missiles scuttling oil tankers that braved the journey. The US on the brink of a direct war with Iran.
So went the “tanker war” of the 1980s, when Iranian and Iraqi sieges of the 33km-wide Strait of Hormuz — one of the most vulnerable parts of the global economy — turned oil shipments into floating targets.
As the world braces for Iran’s potential retaliation to US air strikes, many fear escalation could lead to Tehran once again targeting the strait, a chokepoint through which a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil trade and a fifth of its natural gas exports passes.
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