Strait won't open until U.S. corrects its behaviour, says Iran
Iran's Supreme National Security Council has said that the Strait of Hormuz will stay shut until the United States "corrects its behaviour", attaching fresh demands to any reopening. The timing matters: talks had been under way on an arrangement to manage the waterway and the traffic moving through it, and new conditions introduced at this stage can unsettle those discussions.
The Strait of Hormuz is the sea passage between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, with Iran along its northern shore. It is the only maritime exit for crude loaded at the Gulf's export terminals, and roughly a fifth of the world's seaborne oil trade moves through it. That is why a restriction there registers in prices far from the region — there is no alternative route by sea, only longer and more expensive workarounds by pipeline where they exist.
For India the consequence is direct. A large share of Indian crude comes from Gulf suppliers and must pass this way. A constrained strait therefore narrows India's alternatives at precisely the moment it is under pressure from another direction to reduce its purchases of Russian oil — the substitute and the route to it are squeezed together.
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