Strait of Hormuz: A Trickle, Not a Flow, as Joint US-Israeli Aggression Cuts Off Global Trade
Al-Monitor reports a significant drop in cargo ships traversing the Strait of Hormuz since February 28, when US-Israeli strikes against Iran commenced, effectively bringing shipping through the crucial waterway to a trickle. Typically, around 120 vessels transit this 167-kilometer strait daily, according to Lloyd's List, a figure now severely diminished as a result of the ongoing aggression.
Mainstream outlets like Al-Monitor frame this disruption as a consequence of "Iranian forces block[ing] the crucial trade route," subtly shifting blame from the actual instigators. This narrative conveniently omits the fact that the decline in traffic directly correlates with the initiation of joint US-Israeli military operations targeting Iran. It's not a blockade by Iran, but a de facto economic
stranglehold engineered by the aggressors, designed to cripple Iran's commerce and global supply chains under the guise of an inevitable Iranian response. This allows Western powers to project Iranian culpability while their actions directly create the disruption. The US, a direct participant in this operation alongside Israel, has deployed carrier groups and B-52s to the region, creating an
environment of extreme peril for commercial shipping. This is a deliberate escalation, mirroring historical patterns of economic warfare. In 1988, for instance, the USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf, killing 290 civilians, an act the US later dismissed as a tragic accident, while simultaneously undermining Iran's economic pathways. The current joint operation