Strait of Hormuz: Ramesh Shrestha

Law of (in)convenience

The Strait of Hormuz, despite many Iranian threats over the decades, has never been closed until now. The closure of the strait of Hormuz by Iran is equivalent to the concept of sanction imposed on international shipping causing sharp increase in fuel prices globally. There are calls on Iran to lift the closure of Hormuz immediately, unconditionally citing the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea which grants ‘right to transit passage’ through international straits and the coastal state’s obligation of not disrupting international shipping. Indeed, it is an international obligation.

Unintended victims

The victims of sanctions have always been the innocent civilians as the people in power or with wealth are never harmed and remain untouched economically or otherwise. Without going into details, below are historically recorded brief summaries of sanctions imposed on various countries violating every international law, against which there was little outcry from any corners of the world. On the contrary, there were even tacit support by many on such actions for political purposes where all international law remains as an anecdote as in the case of Sudan and Gaza.

Cuba: US Sanctions on Cuba started with arms embargo in March 1958 during the armed conflict between the rebel faction led by Fidel Castro and the US backed Fulgencio Bautista regime in Cuba which at that time was a den for gambling, money laundering and illicit drug trade. Following the communist victory, the US government initiated a covert operation to carry out terrorist operation and sabotage causing serious economic harm. Thus, started the import of weapons from the Soviet Union which further tightened US sanctions progressively which continued till today under various pretext causing extreme hardships for the entire Cuban population.

North Korea: Korea was split along the 38th parallel in 1945 at the end of WW-II with the north occupied by the communist faction backed by the USSR and the south occupied by the USA for three years and continued to be backed till today. The Korean war started in 1950 with both claiming to be the rightful government. The US sanctions on North Korea started in 1950 at the beginning of the Korean War. It was progressively made stringent under the ‘trading with enemy act’ and some were eased during 1990s then the UN sanctions reimposed with tighter control in 2006 following nuclear test and continues till to-date.

Iran: Sanctions on Iran began in the 1950 driven by the United Kingdom in retaliation for claiming sovereignty over its oil industry operated by British Petroleum since 1909. The sanctions were lifted following the coup d’etat and return of the Shah in 1954. The US sanctions were reimposed in November 1979 following the Islamic Revolution with the return of Ayatollah from exile and overthrew the Shah regime. The sanctions include seizing of Iranian assets outside Iran and the sanctions regime tightened progressively focusing on its nuclear programme since 2006.

Vietnam: After defeating the French colonial administration in 1954 the communist North Vietnam wanted to unify the entire country but South Vietnam with US assistance continued the conflict between the north and south Vietnam. In 1964 North Vietnamese military attacked US destroyer Maddox patrolling the North Vietnamese’s territorial water thus beginning the imposition of US sanctions in 1964. With the withdrawal of the American military from South Vietnam in April 1975, South and North Vietnam were unified in July 1976. The US sanctions were further tightened which was withdrawn in February 1994.

Syria: The US sanctions in Syria started in 1979 for occupying part of Lebanon followed by the EU sanctions in 1984. The civil war in Syria that started in 2011 as part of the Arab Spring led to further tightening of sanctions which was lifted in mid-2025. With ongoing rift between various factions backed by different external interests, it is still a long way for Syria to achieve a sense of normalcy.

Myanmar: The sanctions imposed by the US and EU against its military regime have been off and on since the 1990s with brief lifting in 2012 and reimposed again in 2021.

There are several countries with different levels of US, EU and UN sanctions on countries and regions such as Somalia, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Iraq, Yemen, Crimea, Russia, etc. Almost all of these sanctions are related to political issues such as governance, international & bilateral relations and trade & commerce, and terrorism (depending on factions). In all of these conflicts, civilians are the unfortunate victims.

Invisible sanctions

Besides the above very visible sanctions with the engagement of powerful countries and the United Nations there are actions by powerful neighbours to weak neighbours causing extreme harm to the ordinary civilians which goes unnoticed as such events are insignificant politically for the rest of the world despite the illegality based on UN conventions. Below is an example of at least three Indian imposed sanctions on Nepal.

India had established several military posts and security checkpoints along Nepal-China border in 1950 when Nepal was closed to the external world; (Nepal is India locked on East, West and South and China on North). With the new King occupying the Crown in March 1955 requested withdrawal of Indian military from Nepal which finally happened between 1969 and mid-1970 with the removal of 17 military installations from the Nepal-China border but Indian military posts still remained in Kalapani region of western Nepal even today. To express its dissatisfaction India imposed land blockade from April 1969 to September 1970 disrupting all land-based imports/export trade. The Nepal government had to provide relief by airlifting even petrol and kerosene from Singapore.

Without going into details, there were two other blockades on Nepal. The blockade in 1989 was related to Nepal wanting to review a 50 years old trade and transit treaty with India and Nepal purchasing weapons from China (I am sure Nepal had no intention of occupying India!). The second blockade was in 2015-2016 for Nepal not agreeing to Indian suggestions on amendment of Nepal’s constitution. This blockade which includes import of medicine and food fuel was cruel especially because Nepal just had a 7.8 Richter scale earthquake in April 2015 causing innumerable harm with a lot of destruction and sufferings.

All in all, it is not the lack of regulations and law but the sidelining of all international law that is causing hardships for people around the world including closure of Hormuz. The International Law including the Law of War, the 1965 UN Convention on Transit Trade of Landlocked States and the 1958 Geneva Convention on the Law of Sea provides transit provisions for landlocked countries for trade and transit and many similar international conventions and covenants have become either misapplied or have been totally ignored depending on convenience or inconvenience. In the current geopolitical environment diplomacy and peace have no chances to succeed.

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