New York: The UN Security Council has delayed a crucial vote on authorising defensive force to safeguard shipping in the Strait of Hormuz amid escalating tensions with Iran.
The 15-member council was scheduled to vote on Friday morning on a Bahrain-sponsored draft resolution permitting “defensive” measures against Iranian attacks on vessels in the vital waterway.
But by Thursday night, the agenda shifted.
Diplomatic sources cited Good Friday — a UN public holiday — as the reason, even though the date was set well in advance. No new voting date has emerged.
Iran’s blockade of the strait, a retaliation against US-Israeli strikes igniting a war in West Asia, has choked global fuel flows and unsettled markets. Around a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passes through this narrow waterway, and its near-closure has driven up prices for energy, LNG, and fertilizers.
Bahrain’s UN ambassador Jamal Alrowaiei decried the situation this week, saying, “We cannot accept economic terrorism affecting our region and the world, the whole world is being affected by the developments.”
He described the text, backed by the United States after multiple amendments, as arriving “at a critical juncture.”
On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump advised nations facing shortages to “go get your own oil” in the strait, saying that American forces won’t intervene.
A sixth draft, obtained by AFP, empowers member states — acting alone or in “voluntary multinational naval partnerships” — to employ “all defensive means necessary and commensurate with the circumstances.” It targets the strait and nearby waters “to secure transit passage and to deter attempts to close, obstruct or otherwise interfere with international navigation through the Strait of Hormuz,” initially for at least six months.
To woo hesitant powers like Russia, China, and France, drafters softened the language. It avoids invoking Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which justifies force for peace, and stresses defensive intent—easing French reservations.
France’s UN envoy Jérôme Bonnafont on Thursday stated that it’s up to the Council to quickly devise the necessary defensive response following a March vote condemning Iran’s blockade. Yet President Emmanuel Macron has labelled a military push to reopen the route “unrealistic.”
Veto-wielding Russia and China remain wary.
China’s ambassador Fu Cong said: “Authorising member states to use force would amount to legitimizing the unlawful and indiscriminate use of force, which would inevitably lead to further escalation of the situation and lead to serious consequences.”
Russia, Tehran’s steadfast partner, has slammed the proposal as one-sided.
With those vetoes looming, the resolution confronts steep hurdles, said Daniel Forti, an analyst at International Crisis Group.
“It faces tall odds to make it through the Security Council,” Forti told AFP. “It is hard to see them supporting a resolution that treats stability in the strait exclusively as a security issue, instead of one that also grapples with the need for a durable political end to the hostilities.”
Such Security Council approvals for force are uncommon, echoing the 1990 Gulf War mandate for a U.S.-led coalition against Iraq and the 2011 Libya intervention by NATO.
