"Iran's Control of Strait of Hormuz Violates International Law"

Photo: Collected

News Desk : Paul Musgrave, associate professor of politics at Georgetown University in Qatar, highlighted a very sensitive issue of current geopolitics in an interview given to the international media Al Jazeera. He pointed out very clearly that Iran's efforts to establish unilateral control over the strategically important Strait of Hormuz and to block shipping are completely against international law.

According to Professor Musgrave, such actions by Iran directly violate the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. According to this international law, commercial ships of all nations have the right to free and safe passage in any international waterway. Iran's failure to comply with this law is setting a very dangerous and damaging precedent for global maritime security and trade.

The impact of this crisis is not limited to the Strait of Hormuz or the Persian Gulf region, but its negative reverberations are likely to spread around the world. In order to ensure the overall economic and energy security of the world, the role of important 'chokepoints' or waterways such as the Strait of Hormuz, Malacca Strait, Suez Canal or Bab al-Mandab is immense. If a country takes control of a waterway in violation of international law, the security and stability of sea lanes in other regions will also be threatened.

Musgrave warned with a realistic example that if Iran's unilateral behavior were to be accepted by the international community, other world powers would be encouraged to make similar unscrupulous claims over their territorial waters. For example, if Spain were to similarly announce its own laws or bans on shipping in and out of the Mediterranean in the future, it would cause major disruption to global trade.

Source: Al-Jazeera.