{"id":328658,"date":"2026-03-08T18:27:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T18:27:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/328658\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T18:27:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T18:27:31","slug":"the-big-problem-with-trumps-plans-to-open-the-strait-of-hormuz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/328658\/","title":{"rendered":"The big problem with Trump\u2019s plans to open the Strait of Hormuz"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Mart\u00edn Izaguirre Salgado keeps a souvenir from his time working on a liquid petroleum gas tanker that came under fire in the Red Sea two years ago.\n <\/p>\n

\n Four missiles exploded so close to his ship that little pieces of shrapnel rained down on the deck.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI keep some of those pieces at home,\u201d said Salgado, who has worked as a seafarer since 2021.\n <\/p>\n

\n For commercial seafarers like Salgado, there\u2019s little President Donald Trump could say right now that would convince them to sail through the Strait of Hormuz. Trump has promised to provide government-backed insurance policies and naval escorts to keep ships moving. But threats from Iran to attack any ships in the region outweigh the promises of support.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAs long as they keep firing rockets or drones to merchant vessels, this unsafe feeling will remain there,\u201d he told CNN from a tanker in the Persian Gulf.\n <\/p>\n

\"Mart\u00edn<\/p>\n

\n Zero tankers transited the Strait of Hormuz Wednesday, a narrow channel just off Iran\u2019s southern coast that\u2019s normally packed with an armada of 60 or more ships carrying 20% of the world\u2019s oil. The Gulf today is packed with tankers and other ships unable to get out, including Salgado\u2019s, which is anchored off the coast of Iraq.\n <\/p>\n

\n Major ship lines Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd have stopped accepting most cargo destined for the Persian Gulf countries. Since fighting in Iran broke out over the weekend, maritime insurers have yanked war-related coverage for shipping companies.\n <\/p>\n

\n There are dangers that the entire global supply chain could be upended, raising costs for businesses and their customers. The effective shutdown has already sent oil prices surging above $80 to their highest level since August 2024.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump\u2019s plan is designed to give shipping companies assurances that they\u2019d be able to move through the strait. But Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, said he doesn\u2019t know of any shipping line that would take the risk.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI have no evidence that (those promises) can be carried through,\u201d said Seroka, who previously worked for American President Lines in the Middle East. \u201cI just don\u2019t see how it is possible with all my years in this industry. And I don\u2019t see how we put folks at even more risk and be live targets in the open seas.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Seroka said that after talking with shipping executives, it would take nothing short of a ceasefire to get commercial ships moving again.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI don\u2019t see any appetite to move cargo and put crew and assets in harm\u2019s way,\u201d he added.\n <\/p>\n

\n A senior US administration official told CNN there\u2019s currently \u201cno specific timeline\u201d on launching the Naval escort, but said there\u2019s a concerted effort to set the conditions for the operation as soon as possible.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cRight now, the biggest issue is just physical security,\u201d the senior administration official said Friday. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to run a large tanker ship through the Strait of Hormuz today, but that that\u2019ll change in the not-too-distant future.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n US officials view the strait as part of an active conflict zone where Iran has taken action to target several tankers.\n <\/p>\n

\n The military is focused on reining in Iran\u2019s ability to \u201cterrorize\u201d the region first, the official said, but then will be able to help get ship traffic once again flowing out of Strait of Hormuz.\n <\/p>\n

\n The administration also isn\u2019t concerned with the spike in oil and gas prices, which has boosted the average price of a US gallon to a high point in Trump\u2019s current term<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe key thing to look at is we\u2019re in a conflict today that\u2019ll be quite temporary,\u201d the official said. \u201cThe world is at absolutely zero risk of running out of oil or energy through this conflict, but we are suffering a short-term price dislocation.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Still, the administration\u2019s actions over the course of the last few days telegraph a level of concern that isn\u2019t reflected in the more sanguine public statements from Trump and his top officials.\n <\/p>\n

\n There are tremendous concerns by the shipping industry about operating so close to a war zone.\n <\/p>\n

\n First and foremost for companies is concern for crew safety, said Sanne Manders, President of Flexport, a global shipping logistics company. But they also don\u2019t want to put their physical cargo ships at risk, even with the promise of insurance.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThese companies (want to ensure that) their vessels are safe because those are very expensive, right? It\u2019s hundreds of millions of dollars, so they\u2019re not going to put those assets at risk for, let\u2019s say, a commercial transaction,\u201d Manders said.\n <\/p>\n

\n There are also significant doubts there are enough Navy ships to escort commercial vessels, given that 60 or more tankers typically traverse the strait each day.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cNaval escorts would help reduce the threat for the ships being protected,\u201d said Jakob Larsen, chief safety and security officer for Danish shipping association BIMCO. \u201cThat said, providing protection for all tankers operating in areas currently threatened by Iran is unrealistic as this would require a very high number of warships and other military assets.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n The US military provided escort service for tankers from the oil-rich Gulf states during the earlier Iran-Iraq war, noted Helima Croft, global head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets and a former CIA analyst who worked at the agency during the Iraq war.\n <\/p>\n

\n But she doesn\u2019t believe that solution would work now because, back then, those countries were not under direct attack.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe weren\u2019t the active combatant then,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re the main character in this. We are not playing an auxiliary escort role.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n In the near term, shippers are contending with rising prices for fuel. The world\u2019s largest container shipping company, MSC, already announced fuel surcharges on shipments until at least April. That cost will likely to be passed onto businesses and ultimately consumers.\n <\/p>\n

\n But there are bigger problems looming if ships don\u2019t get moving again.\n <\/p>\n

\n One major concern is that the crisis will throw the entire global supply chain out of whack as it did during the height of the pandemic. Empty containers in the wrong locations, ships gridlocked outside of ports and other logistical problems raised prices sharply for a wide variety of goods.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe longer it takes, the higher the chance is that there is going to be port congestion,\u201d said Flexport\u2019s Manders, who said ships destined for the Persian Gulf will head elsewhere.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cPorts, especially in Asia, are already quite full\u2026And that is going to impact global shipping,\u201d he added.\n <\/p>\n

\n The US-allied Gulf states are also cut off from receiving shipments. That\u2019s critical as six Gulf Arab nations \u2013 Oman, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait \u2013 import about 85% of their food.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

\n Salgado\u2019s ship has been anchored outside Iraq since February 26, about 400 nautical miles from the strait. Its still waiting to load up and head to Bangladesh.\n <\/p>\n

\n His contract had originally been due to end Friday. He still wishes he was just a day away from returning home to Spain.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThat\u2019s our feeling now, being stuck and unable to predict when will we be able to sign off,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u2013 CNN\u2019s Matt Egan, Hanna Ziady, Tim Lister and Muhammad Darwish contributed to this report\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mart\u00edn Izaguirre Salgado keeps a souvenir from his time working on a liquid petroleum gas tanker that came…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,184,85,46],"class_list":["post-328658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}