The United States and its Gulf allies pressed the United Nations on Thursday to demand that Iran end its blockage of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, as a resolution on the issue faced a veto threat.
Diplomatic sources said that veto-holding Russia, a key ally of Iran, had warned on Wednesday that it was prepared to block the UN Security Council resolution.
US Ambassador Mike Waltz, speaking on Thursday alongside counterparts from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait, argued the issue had global consequences.
“We believe in some basic fundamental principles, namely the freedom of navigation for the entire world’s economies,” Waltz said.
“That’s what’s at stake here, nothing less than a cornerstone of worldwide stability and commerce,” he added.
A draft resolution from the United States and Bahrain demands that Iran halt its attacks and threats against commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
It also orders Iran not to charge tolls on the passage, to specify where it has placed mines, and to allow for the creation of a humanitarian corridor for shipments of fertiliser amid fears of global food shortages.
A fifth of the world’s oil supplies and a third of the global fertiliser shipments normally pass through the Strait of Hormuz, but shipping has been largely cut off since the war broke out on 28 February with US and Israeli attacks on Iran.
Iran’s UN ambassador blasted the draft resolution as a ‘flawed, politically motivated’ text that would not resolve the crisis.
“Passing the resolution would establish a dangerous precedent for legitimising unilateral coercive measures and unlawful actions by the United States against the sovereignty and sovereign rights of coastal states,” Amir Saeid Iravani said.
In mid-March the council passed a strongly worded resolution urging Iran to stop attacking its Gulf neighbours and condemning its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.
Russia and China abstained in that vote. But in early April they vetoed a text urging countries to coordinate their efforts in a defensive way to ensure free navigation through the strait.
