Strait of Hormuz

The Strait of Hormuz is the only maritime outlet from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, separating Iran to the north from Oman's Musandam exclave to the south. At its narrowest, the strait is roughly 33 kilometers wide, with shipping lanes of only a few kilometers in each direction, making it one of the world's most strategically sensitive chokepoints.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the strait is the most important oil transit chokepoint globally, with roughly a fifth of global petroleum liquids consumption passing through it. Crude and condensate exports from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Iran transit Hormuz, along with most of Qatar's LNG shipments. Pipelines bypassing the strait — notably Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline and the UAE's Habshan–Fujairah line — offer only partial alternatives.

Legally, the strait is governed by the regime of transit passage under Part III of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Iran signed but has not ratified UNCLOS and maintains that only states party to the convention may invoke transit passage; the United States, also not a party, asserts the right as customary international law. This disagreement underlies recurring incidents involving warship transits and tanker boardings.

The strait has been a flashpoint in multiple crises: the "Tanker War" phase of the Iran–Iraq War in the 1980s, including the U.S. reflagging of Kuwaiti tankers (Operation Earnest Will); the 1988 downing of Iran Air Flight 655 by the USS Vincennes; and more recent incidents such as Iran's 2019 seizure of the Stena Impero and the 2023 seizure of the Advantage Sweet. Iranian officials have periodically threatened to close the strait in response to sanctions or military pressure, though no sustained closure has occurred. Security is shouldered primarily by the U.S. Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, alongside multinational task forces such as the Combined Maritime Forces.