“Closing the strait entirely will spike oil prices even more than they did before, and put more pressure on the US from the international community,” said Jennifer Kavanagh, director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, a Washington think-tank. “It definitely shows how frustrated and at the end of his options the president feels,” she added….
Kavanagh said that a US naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would also pose some operational challenges and dilemmas that did not exist during the action against energy shipments to and from Venezuela. “Let’s say that it’s a Gulf state or a French ship that’s going through and they did pay the toll,” she said. “What’s the US going to do? Seize an allied tanker? And let’s then, say that it’s a Chinese ship that paid the toll. Are we going to seize a Chinese tanker? And what are the Chinese going to do?”
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