Strait of Hormuz: Why US, Iran are sailing in very different legal waters

RHODE ISLAND: (Apr 15) The Strait of Hormuz exists in the eye of the beholder.

While everyone agrees that, geographically speaking, it is a strait – a narrow sea passage connecting two places that ships want to go – its political and legal status is rather more complicated.

The United States and Iran both eye the strait – a choke point through which 20 per cent of the world’s oil passes – very differently. Washington sees the Strait of Hormuz as exclusively an international waterway, whereas Tehran sees it as part of it territorial waters.