Spain demands the opening of the Strait of Hormuz and warns against a “long-term” global energy crisis

The Diplomat The Spanish government has demanded the opening of the Strait of Hormuz and warned that “further military escalation” in the region “could trigger a long-term energy crisis for all of humanity.” “The Government of Spain demands the opening of Hormuz and the preservation of all the energy sites in the Middle East,” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote on social media this Sunday. “We stand at a global tipping point,” he warned. “Further escalation could trigger a long-term energy crisis for all humanity,” he continued. “The world should not pay the consequences of this war,” he insisted. Until very recently, almost a fifth of the world’s oil passed through the Strait of Hormuz. Before February 28, when the joint US-Israeli offensive against Iran began, more than a hundred ships passed through this strait daily, but since then the number has dropped to five or six. For this reason, Iran's blockade has affected the markets, with stock market declines, rising oil prices, and fears of inflationary pressures that could influence central bank interest rate policies. Iran's representative to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), Seyed Ali Mousavi, warned in statements to the official Chinese news agency Mehr that the Strait of Hormuz "remains open to all types of navigation," but not to vessels belonging to "Iran's enemies." Therefore, he added, only ships that negotiate security conditions with Tehran beforehand will be allowed to pass. Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi assured his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, and Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, that the "insecurity" in the Strait of Hormuz is a "direct consequence" of the "aggression" by the United States and Israel against its territory. Last Friday, US President Donald Trump gave Iran a 48-hour ultimatum to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face attacks on Iranian power plants. This Monday, the US president asserted that “Iran really wants to make a deal” and claimed that the Strait of Hormuz would reopen “soon” if negotiations were successful. Trump even raised the possibility of the strait being “jointly controlled” by himself and “the next ayatollah, whoever that may be.”

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