Legislation is moving through the Iranian parliament that aims to actually ban any US-flagged vessel from the Persian Gulf. The Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission approved the general outlines of a draft bill on managing the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf, IRNA reported on Aug. 9. Hassan Qashqavi, the commission spokesperson, told reporters that the general outline of the bill entitled “Strategic Action for Ensuring Security and Sustainable Development of the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf” was given the go-ahead after being reviewed in a meeting. The proposed legislation would task the Iranian government, in cooperation with the Armed Forces, with ensuring maritime security, navigational safety and environmental protection in the Persian Gulf. The preliminary text of the bill also proposed a blanket ban on vessels owned or flagged by the United States, the Israel, or other hostile states or entities linked to them.
WANA noted that in Iran’s negotiations with Oman, Iran has reportedly committed to prevent U.S. warships from passing through the Strait of Hormuz. WANA notes further when the United States first established its naval presence in Bahrain in 1983, it wasn;t so much about oil tankers as iit was about creating a strategic reality: the Persian Gulf should remain a region where the U.S. Navy could move freely, deploy forces, and intervene if necessary. This is the reality that Iran seeks to change not by military force “ but by changing the framework governing maritime movement.”
Iran’s effort to change the legal status of the strait matters because “from Washington’s perspective, Hormuz is not merely an energy corridor—it is a military corridor..” If the Strait of Hormuz is closed to foreign military vessels this has implications for the entirety of the US millitary posture in the Gulf region, which has already been severely impacted by Iranian missiles and drones, a fact not mentioned by WANA but well known to Iranian strategists.
