The world is experiencing renewed violence between the United States and Iran. For more than a week, the two countries have been clashing again with missile strikes and drone attacks. This new episode of asymmetric warfare, less than a month after the signing of a botched agreement, is driving up oil and gas prices. In France, the price of the gasoline most used by motorists, SP95, exceeded the ceiling of €2 per liter on Monday.
The stakes are high and are not limited to the belligerents. It concerns control of the Strait of Hormuz, a key passage for world trade. By launching war against Iran in February, with the objective of regime change, the United States and Israel made possible a blackmail that Tehran had until then only dreamed of: that of exercising a right of control over the movement of ships and imposing a toll.
Such a system would violate customary international law, and in particular the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. But in the context where Washington and Tel Aviv have themselves freed themselves from the major founding texts of the UN, all abuses become possible.
And yet, the rules that the world’s states have adopted for more than eight decades must continue to be defended and applied – as much as possible. Even if the law of the strongest seems to prevail in recent years, the law still weighs: it sets limits requiring a possible transgressor to justify crossing them; it creates a common language for all stakeholders; it offers a framework for action for those who want to use their instruments. In the case of the Strait of Hormuz, the international community must refuse Iran.
