مضيق هرمز وقانون أعالي البحار!

In 1980, the Iran-Iraq War broke out; it was not just a border conflict but turned into a fire that ignited the region from Basra at the top of the Gulf extending to the Strait of Hormuz, a senseless war that continues to this day.

The Arabian Gulf has gone through many grave events following that war, starting with the mining of the Strait of Hormuz, and not ending with the tanker war, the sinking of ships and barges, and the crashing of planes, turning the Gulf into a troubled lake whose fires hardly extinguish before igniting again.

Perhaps the fate of this region is that it contains within its lands and seas "oil and gas," the most valuable resources of humanity, and the most coveted, but it also carries unlawful ambitions of states and nations, which, through their expansionist dreams, seek to impose their hegemony and guardianship or even settle old historical and geographical scores.

The American-Israeli war with Iran places us before the repercussions of an unprecedented crisis, as Tehran's demand to impose tolls on passage through the Strait of Hormuz undoubtedly represents a challenge to international law, even distorting its legitimacy forever; it is a revolution whose consequences cannot be predicted.

We may return to the Convention on the High Seas and the Straits that regulate the passage of ships and tankers, protect their right to transit, and prevent the coastal state or its neighbors from obstructing it, as the Law of the Sea is the comprehensive legal framework that regulates activities in the seas and oceans, and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) of 1982 is the fundamental reference for these rules.

The law considers straits to be narrow natural waterways connecting two parts of the high seas or exclusive economic zones and is divided into:

First: The right of transit passage: This is the system applied to vital straits (such as the Strait of Hormuz and the Strait of Gibraltar), granting ships and aircraft the freedom to navigate and fly for the purpose of continuous and rapid passage without hindrance from the coastal states.

Second: The right of innocent passage: This applies in certain cases (such as straits connecting one territorial sea to another), where ships are allowed to pass as long as they do not threaten the safety of the coastal state or its system.

Third: The duties of coastal states... Coastal states bordering straits may not stop transit passage, and they must announce any danger threatening navigation.

The importance of these rules is to organize and protect international trade, ensure the flow of supply chains through vital waterways, and settle disputes, as the convention has provided mechanisms for resolving conflicts through the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.

Thus, under international law, Iran does not have the legal or customary right to prevent ships or impose tolls merely for passing through the Strait of Hormuz, even if the ships are passing through its territorial waters, because the Strait of Hormuz is classified as an international strait connecting two parts of the high seas or exclusive economic zones, according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS); therefore, all ships (including military and commercial) enjoy the right of "transit passage," which does not give the coastal state the right to suspend or obstruct it, but rather the passage must be continuous and rapid, and coastal states (Iran) may not impose political or discriminatory conditions on passing ships.

It is also important to note Article 26 of the convention, which explicitly states that "no tolls may be imposed on foreign ships merely for passing through the territorial sea."

Iran signed the 1982 convention, but its parliament did not ratify it; thus, it sometimes claims that it is not bound by the provisions of "transit passage," insisting on the rules of "innocent passage" that grant it greater authority to intervene if it sees that a ship threatens its security, but it currently does not prevent military ships, only commercial ones.

Merely overlooking Iran's attempts to impose transit tolls will lead to the collapse of one of the most important foundations of the global economic and legal system and will push other countries to impose tolls or close straits that the world depends on.

Maritime straits are the arteries of global trade, the most important of which, starting from the Southeast Asia region, is the Strait of Malacca in Malaysia, which is considered the busiest waterway in the world and the lung of China; if it were to close or malfunction, China's situation would worsen. Following it is the Strait of Hormuz, the most important passage supplying the world with energy, then the Bab el-Mandeb, the gateway from East to West, and the Strait of Gibraltar, then the Bosporus and Dardanelles, which are two strategic waterways in Turkey, but it is considered the geopolitical and economic "lung" for Russia, as it is the only outlet connecting its ports on the Black Sea to warm waters and the rest of the world's oceans.

Will the great powers (America, Russia, China) accept that Iran, Turkey, Malaysia, and others impose tolls or control the movement of commercial and even military ships, preventing whom they wish and allowing whom they wish?

Undoubtedly, this will create chaos and disrupt human life, imposing an unacceptable rebellion against international law that everyone has recognized and has become a reality that countries have lived on for the past hundred years.