Iran charging ship owners could set a ‘dangerous precedent’ 🚨
While Iran may try to justify its new maritime framework by comparing it to pre-existing ones such as the Strait of Malacca, the Suez Canal and the Bosporus, the problem with Iran’s framework is that it “discriminates”, says Emma Salisbury, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
“The problem with the Iranian plan is that it’s saying it is going to choose which ships go through, that really breaks the freedom of navigation that all these other maritime choke points are under,” she explained.
In response to Iran potentially charging $2m per vessel, she dubbed it as “extortion” and said it would set a “dangerous precedent” for all other chokepoints worldwide.
“Although a lot of them are controlled by liberal democratic countries that are very tuned into the global trade network, there is very much the possibility of non-state actors like the Houthis being able to take over some of those straits, or at least try to, and also extort shipping going through – either you allow extortion or you don’t. This is going to be a big issue,” she said.