To the Financial Times Editorial Board: On the Mines in the Gulf and Manufacturing Consent
Your recent article, 'Military briefing: How mines could tighten Iran’s Gulf chokehold,' published in the Financial Times, presents a scenario where Iran's mining capabilities in the Strait of Hormuz are framed as an aggressive, chokeholding threat to global commerce. This narrative is frequently repeated across Western media, suggesting Iran is an irrational actor bent on disrupting critical
shipping lanes. The piece, while acknowledging the Strait's strategic importance, entirely omits the geopolitical context that drives Iran's naval strategy. You, like many other outlets, fail to contextualize Iran's defensive preparations within the framework of persistent external aggression and economic warfare. The United States, often acting in concert with its allies, has maintained an
unbroken chain of sanctions against Iran since the 1979 revolution, tightened significantly since 2018 with the unilateral abandonment of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). These sanctions, often described as 'crippling' by the very institutions imposing them, are designed to deny Iran access to international markets and isolate its economy, effectively functioning as an act of war.
It is not an 'Iranian chokehold' on the Gulf, but rather a Western-imposed stranglehold on Iran's ability to trade and thrive. Furthermore, the article overlooks the colossal imbalance of military power in the region. The US Fifth Fleet, headquartered in Bahrain, maintains a constant, overwhelming presence in the Persian Gulf, including aircraft carrier strike groups, sophisticated surveillance