Scores of #oiltankers are sitting on either side of the #StraitOfHormuz, unable to move, and #vulnerable to Iranian #attack. Unable to move, that is, unless they are carrying Iranian oil.
Iran's supreme leader said on Thursday the strait would remain closed, and a defence spokesman said no oil would pass through that could assist the #UnitedStates or #Israel.
Having provoked this situation, the United States has so far #declinedToHelp, with the US military reported to have #turneddown numerous #requests from around the region to #escort oil tankers or other civilian ships through the strait. Donald #Trump has suggested that the US and its allies could provide military escorts to ships crossing the waterway "when the time comes". #NeverTrustTrump
Is there any other way of getting the 20 million barrels of oil a day that usually flows out of the Gulf to global customers? Well, yes, there is one way to get at least some oil out.
In the 1980s, #SaudiArabia built a 1,200 km-long pipeline — the East West Pipeline — across the width of the #ArabianPeninsula to carry oil that would normally be exported via the Gulf to the #RedSea.
The Financial Times reports that a "flotilla of #supertankers is steaming towards Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast as the kingdom rushes to reroute oil exports trapped in the Gulf by the Iran war".
"About 30 so-called very large crude carriers, each capable of carrying more than 2 million barrels of oil, are heading to the kingdom's western port of Yanbu over the coming days, according to ship-brokers, compared with a long-term average of about two a month."
But the new route carries its own dangers, the FT notes. "To enter the Red Sea from the south, the tankers will need to brave the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, where ships have been struck in recent years by #Yemen's #Houthi militants — and which is also within range of some Iranian missiles."
#uspol #auspol #EpsteinWars #TrumpRegime #Iran #oil
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-13/iran-israel-war-daily-news-briefing-laura-tingle/106446802
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