The UN Security Council will vote Friday on a draft resolution from Bahrain authorizing the use of “defensive” force to protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz from Iranian attacks.
Iran has tightened control over the key shipping lane in retaliation for U.S.-Israeli strikes that triggered the month-long Middle East war, threatening fuel supplies and roiling the global economy.
"We cannot accept economic terrorism affecting our region and the world, the whole world is being affected by the developments," Bahrain's UN ambassador Jamal Alrowaiei said this week. He added that the text, supported by the United States, "comes at a critical juncture."
President Donald Trump on Wednesday told countries facing fuel shortages to "go get your own oil" in the strait, adding that U.S. forces would not assist them.
The sixth and final draft allows member states, either unilaterally or through “voluntary multinational naval partnerships,” to use “all defensive means necessary and commensurate with the circumstances” in the strait and adjacent waters to “secure transit passage and to deter attempts to close, obstruct or otherwise interfere with international navigation.” The measure would last at least six months.
The draft has been amended to address concerns from countries including France, Russia, and China. French UN ambassador Jerome Bonnafont said Thursday, "it is up to the Council to quickly devise the necessary defensive response." President Emmanuel Macron earlier called a military operation "unrealistic."
Chinese ambassador Fu Cong warned, "Authorizing member states to use force would amount to legitimizing the unlawful and indiscriminate use of force, which would inevitably lead to further escalation of the situation and lead to serious consequences." Russia has denounced what it calls one-sided measures.
Analyst Daniel Forti of the International Crisis Group said, "It is hard to see them supporting a resolution that treats stability in the strait exclusively as a security issue, instead of one that also grapples with the need for a durable political end to the hostilities."
Normally, about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passes through the Strait of Hormuz, whose near-total closure is driving up global energy prices. Security Council authorizations to use force are rare, including votes for the 1990 Gulf War and the 2011 NATO intervention in Libya.