Strait of Hormuz now totally blocked — with US stopping 14 Iran-tied tankers and hundreds of others too scared to cross

It’s an international game of chicken.

At one end of the Strait of Hormuz Iran is threatened to attack any ship that crossed without its permission.

At the other, a US blockade is halting the few remaining ships that were making it through — all of which were tied to Iran’s shadow fleet.

The result is that traffic at the critical choke point — which carries 20% of the world’s oil — is at a standstill.

Only four ships appear to have successfully crossed the Strait of Hormuz in the four days since the blockade came into effect — according to maritime trackers — all of which were entering the Persian Gulf, rather than exiting with Tehran’s oil exports.

But about 800 vessels remain stuck in the Gulf, according to the UK-based Lloyd’s List, leaving 20,000 seafarers in limbo.

The US blockade on Iranian ports have forced 14 ships to turn around in the Gulf of Oman in the first 72 hours.

Prior to the war, more than 130 ships traveled through the strait every day but traffic fell to only a handful of vessels after the conflict broke out, the majority of which were linked to Iran.

The blockade put an end to that, with 14 vessels forced to turn back due to their links with Iranian exports within the first 72 hours, according to US Central Command.

Only a single ship was caught exiting the strait on Thursday, but it remained to be seen if the vessel, the Comoros-flagged Race tanker, will make it to its final destination in India or if it will be intercepted and forced to turn back by US warships in the Gulf of Oman.

While traffic out of the oil-rich Persian Gulf has appeared to drop to zero, tracking data indicates that at least four ships have managed to enter the Persian Gulf after the blockade went into effect on Monday morning.

US warships have intercepted ships trying to leave Iran’s ports and forced them to turn back. @CENTCOM/X

The Iranian-flagged Neshat cargo ship, which came from western Africa, was the latest ship found to have entered the Gulf, with the vessel docking in the Bandar Abbas port just past the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday.

It followed trips from the Comoros-flagged Zaynar 2 sanctioned container that made it to the same port on Wednesday and the empty RHN tanker, which sails under the Curacoa flag.

The US-sanctioned oil tanker Alicia, which passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, appeared to be the only ship that crossed that wasn’t bound for Iran, according to Kpler’s maritime tracker.

About 800 vessels remain trapped in the Persian Gulf, unable to cross the Strait of Hormuz. AP

The Alicia had its destination set for Iraq, which would have made it clear to cross the US blockade as it’s only enforced for Iranian ports.

Despite the presence of more than a dozen American warships and US efforts to clear the mines Iran set along the Strait of Hormuz, there is little appetite for foreign oil and cargo ships to make the journey.

Iran has repeatedly warned that it would attack any ship attempting to cross the strait without its permission and paying tolls of up to $2 million.

The US has more than two dozen warships and 10,000 troops stationed in the Gulf to enforce the blockade. Anadolu via Getty Images

The Islamic republic, notably, has access to fast attack warships operating in the strait that attack unauthorized ships passing through.

About 800 vessels are currently stuck in the Persian Gulf, including more than 300 oil and gas tankers, according to maritime trackers.

The halt of traffic risks chaos for the global economy, but the standstill serves as a major blow to Iran, which was exporting about 2 million barrels of oil a day during the war.

With its exports freezing up, analysts estimate that Iran can only endure a complete halt for two to eight weeks before it’s forced to curb production, risking long-term damage to its oil fields.

The US has vowed to inflict as much economic pressure on Iran as possible to force the Islamic republic to make concessions and agree to President Trump’s peace deal, which includes having Tehran abandon ambitions for a nuclear weapon.

A halt to Iran’s oil production, however, would also lead to soaring fuel prices in the global market, adding to the already 12 million barrels a day disrupted by the war.

With Post Wires