{"id":4009,"date":"2026-07-08T19:42:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T19:42:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=4009"},"modified":"2026-07-08T19:42:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T19:42:26","slug":"irans-golden-weapon-of-strait-of-hormuz-became-a-greater-priority-than-its-nuclear-program-heres-how","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=4009","title":{"rendered":"Iran’s ‘golden weapon’ of Strait of Hormuz became a greater priority than its nuclear program \u2014 here’s how"},"content":{"rendered":"
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DUBAI, July 8 \u2013 Control over the Strait of Hormuz has become a \u201cgolden weapon\u201d to Iran, for which it is willing to risk new escalations with the United States, and is a bigger \u200bpriority than a nuclear program for which it accepted decades of sanctions.<\/p>\n

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So\u00a0central is the issue\u00a0to Iranian strategy that ships passing the Strait without Tehran\u2019s approval were fired upon \u200cthis week, leading to an\u00a0exchange of fire\u00a0with the United States that threatens last month\u2019s interim peace deal.<\/p>\n

Iranian leaders, who had demurred for years from choking off the fifth of global energy supplies passing through Hormuz, now see it as their\u00a0strongest card\u00a0in a host of disputes with the West, and the reason Washington ended the war.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecognize the new Iranian order in the Strait of Hormuz: this is the only way forward,\u201d wrote Ebrahim Azizi, a member of the Iranian parliament\u2019s national \u200bsecurity and foreign policy committee on social media, addressing the United States.<\/p>\n

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While their insistence on maintaining control over the waterway risks becoming another long-term dispute with the rest of the world, \u200bthere is little disagreement over the policy in Tehran, two senior Iranian sources told Reuters.<\/p>\n

There had been discussions about whether Iran risked overplaying its hand, but \u2060the overall view in top circles was that no rational country could give up such an important leverage point, one of the sources said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issue of Hormuz, which is Iran\u2019s golden weapon, is something they \u200bnow want to take away from Iran, and that will be absolutely impossible,\u201d the source added.<\/p>\n

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