Letters to the Editor — April 14, 2026

Stop the blockade

The Strait of Hormuz — a waterway expressly protected under UNCLOS Articles 37 to 44 as a transit passage open to all nations — is today being conscripted into a war it did not occasion. Reports of prospective toll regimes and access controls over this chokepoint, through which over millions of barrels of oil pass daily, amount to a flagrant violation of international maritime law. Equally alarming is the silence of the UN Security Council and member states. If this precedent holds, the Strait of Malacca and other critical choke points may follow. Impunity, once established, is rarely contained.