As we count down to negotiations in Islamabad, it looks like Iran continues to want to hold its leverage ahead of talks with the US. According to the latest shipping data from Reuters, there’s still very minimal and restricted activity along the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours.
The data shows that only four dry-bulk ships have managed to sail through the strait in the past day. Meanwhile, there were four tankers that also managed to go through with three of them being Iran-linked tankers. Among those, it includes one that is a crude oil supertanker with two of them said to be returning back to Iran from previous destinations.
Meanwhile, the data says that there is currently one sanctioned gas tanker and one dry-bulk ship in the process of sailing out of the strait. Even by counting all of that alone, it is still less than ten vessels put together in moving through the Strait of Hormuz. And Iran continues to only favour ones that either they are linked with or for respective allies.
In essence, nothing has really changed even after the ceasefire. And I guess Iran has already made that clear, especially when they reaffirmed that the truce has been violated already. But with shipping data, at least we can verify any claims made out. And from what we can see above, it is clear that Iran continues to keep a stranglehold over passage along the strait.
Ahead of talks that will take place today or this weekend, Iran continues to want to hold some leverage over Trump and the US. Control over the Strait of Hormuz is their ace in the hole and they will hang that over the US president if so they must, in order to try and gain better negotiating prowess.
