Word: hormuz
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Worries about Hormuz...
...That point was driven home again last week as the war entered a new cycle of bloodletting. While thousands of Iraqi and Iranian troops clashed in major battles, the widening conflict reawakened the U.S. and other oil-consuming nations to the threat of a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the gateway through which 20% of the oil supplies of the non-Communist world passes...
...this month with air strikes that, they claim, sank nine "enemy naval targets" in the gulf. In response, Iran has hardened its position. Only an end to the rule of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Iranian officials insist, will bring a settlement. Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz to all shipping if Iraq launches attacks on its oil facilities...
...Kharg Island if Iran continued its blockade of Iraq's oil exports through the gulf. In addition, Iraq warned Japan that a large petrochemical complex under construction by a Japanese firm at Bandar-Khomeini would be bombed. Iran, in turn, has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the West's oil supplies pass, if Iraq seriously disrupts Iran's oil exports...
...Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini left no doubt of how it views the new development. "The Persian Gulfs jugular vein is in our hands," declared Iranian state radio. "Should an attempt be made to use the planes to damage Iran's vital resources, Iran would turn the Strait of Hormuz into a quagmire for the West's imperial objectives." Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Speaker of the Iranian parliament, put it more chillingly. If Tehran bottles up the gulf, he warned, "the West will have a very cold winter...