Letter to the Editor
The sea in the Strait is claimed as the territorial waters of Iran and Oman. The following is from Wikipedia (see below) and it explains the current situation and how it evolved from the 1970s. Iran in 1982 adopted the policy that only shipping related to those States which had signed up to the UN Law of the Sea Convention would have a right of passage through the strait. Oman also appears to have a similar provision through its 1989 ratification of the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea. At that point “innocent passage” appears to include warships that were not directly using the Strait as transit for warlike purposes. But in 1993 Iran tightened its demands in that it now included requirements that warships, submarines and nuclear-powered shops obtain prior permission before passing through Iran’s territorial waters. The US is not a signatory to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and has never recognised the claims of either Oman or Iran. A paper on the US position on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea can be read here:
Basically the reasoning is that because the US has the strongest navy in the world it doesn’t have to abide with any regulation or convention that it deems is not in its interests.
Wikipedia reports that, in 1959, Iran altered the legal status of the strait by expanding its territorial sea to 12 nmi (22 km) and declaring it would recognize only transit by innocent passage through the newly expanded area. In 1972, Oman also expanded its territorial sea to 12 nmi (22 km) by decree. Thus, by 1972, the Strait of Hormuz was completely “closed” by the combined territorial waters of Iran and Oman.
[It might be remarked that this is in line with the practice of other countries: For instance, Britain and France between them control passage through the Channel.]
In 1971, Iran took over the Greater and Lesser Tunbs islands west of Hormuz against Arab wishes, thereby extending control of the navigation channels.
During the 1970s, neither Iran nor Oman attempted to impede the passage of warships, but in the 1980s, both countries asserted claims that were different from customary (old) law. Upon ratifying UNCLOS in 1989, Oman submitted declarations confirming its 1981 royal decree that only innocent passage is permitted through its territorial sea. The declarations further asserted that prior permission was required before foreign warships could pass through Omani territorial waters.
Upon signing the convention in 1982, Iran entered a declaration stating “that only states parties to the Law of the Sea Convention shall be entitled to benefit from the contractual rights created therein”, including “the right of transit passage through straits used for international navigation”.
In 1993, Iran enacted a comprehensive law on maritime areas, provisions of which conflict with UNCLOS provisions, including a requirement that warships, submarines, and nuclear-powered ships obtain permission before exercising innocent passage through Iran’s territorial waters. The U.S. does not recognize any of the claims by Oman and Iran and has contested each of them.
Eamon Dyas
Irish Political Review 