Dubai: In a stark sign of escalating tensions, hundreds of commercial vessels clustered off the coast of Dubai on Tuesday, retreating from a near-deserted Strait of Hormuz as Iran intensified efforts to broaden its zone of dominance over the vital chokepoint, Bloomberg reported.
The fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran is showing deepening cracks, with sporadic exchanges of fire persisting even after Washington announced it had cleared a passage through the strait. CBS News reported that two US Navy destroyers successfully transited into the Persian Gulf, a clear indication of the high-stakes naval posturing in the region.
Sailors aboard the diverted ships have intercepted radio warnings from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), alerting mariners to freshly drawn boundaries under its defense. This comes amid fresh attacks on the United Arab Emirates’ Fujairah port, which have highlighted Tehran’s push to extend its operational reach and effectively paralyzed traffic through the strait during early morning hours.
Tehran’s newly defined control zone over the Hormuz approaches stops just short of Dubai, reaching southward along the UAE coastline to Umm al-Quwain — a delineation that has prompted shipping operators to seek safer harbours nearby.
“The US is attempting to level the power balance in the strait and that’s been reciprocated against by Iran. It’s escalation,” said Anoop Singh, global head of shipping research at Oil Brokerage Ltd. “I’m not expecting a quick reopening of bi-directional flows through the strait.”
The Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passes daily, has emerged as a central flashpoint in the ongoing nine-week conflict. Shipping volumes have plummeted since US and Israeli airstrikes targeted Iranian assets, though shipping volumes have fluctuated wildly as each side manoeuvres to reset control — from abrupt blockades to fiercely disputed reopening.”
Currently, daily transits through the strait hover near zero, a dramatic drop from the pre-war average of around 135 vessels per day.
