Iran Declares "Everyone or No One" Policy on Gulf Ports After U.S. Sets April-13 Blockade

Chokepoint brinkmanship is hardly new: Britain’s 1956 Suez Canal seizure collapsed when Egypt blocked the canal; during the 1984-88 ‘Tanker War’ Iran mined Hormuz forcing “Operation Earnest Will”. Today, as in those crises, a regional power leverages a narrow waterway to offset conventional asymmetry with a super-power. The event underscores two long arcs: (1) the erosion of unquestioned U.S. naval primacy in the Gulf since the 1991 war, and (2) the slow but steady diversification of global energy routes (Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan 2006, China’s 2017 Gwadar link, green transition) that—over a 100-year horizon—could blunt Hormuz’s strategic centrality. Yet, with roughly 17 million barrels/day still funneling through the strait, any credible closure threat can spike prices and provoke great-power confrontation, showing how 16th-century geography still shapes 21st-century geopolitics. The rhetoric may be posturing, but history warns that miscalculation in chokepoints often spirals faster than leaders anticipate.