The commander of U.S. Central Command, Adm. Brad Cooper, flew over the Strait of Hormuz in an Army CH-47 Chinook on Sunday to see the waterway for himself, and his verdict was the one the world's oil markets wanted to hear: the main transit routes remain free and clear of Iranian sea mines. Cooper met the American service members who carried out the clearance mission and thanked them for the work that reopened the lanes.
The mines were laid by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps during the confrontation over the strait, and U.S. forces cleared the international shipping lanes in a dedicated operation. Since then, CENTCOM says, more than 3,000 commercial vessels have transited the strait with American support over the past six months, Gulf partners have exported more than 1.5 billion barrels of crude oil since summer, and over 95 per cent of ships have passed through safely despite the Revolutionary Guard's aggression.
Cooper framed the flight as a promise as much as an inspection: the United States stands shoulder to shoulder with its Gulf partners and the shipping industry, committed to freedom of navigation through the strait and intensely focused on keeping commercial traffic moving. For Americans the strait is not an abstraction — a fifth of the world's oil passes through it, and every week it stays open is a week of steadier prices at home. His message to Tehran was carried in the numbers: the waterway is under American and partner control, and the traffic is flowing.
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