Word: hormuz
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Prolonged fighting would open truly frightening possibilities. Iran has threatened that it might block the Strait of Hormuz, through which passes 40% of the oil purchased by the non-Communist world and one-fourth of U.S. oil imports. That would cause economic chaos in the West, and Carter said last week that the U.S. was determined to keep the strait open, implying that it might organize an international fleet to do so. The Soviet news agency TASS thundered that "the U.S.A. is speeding up preparations for armed interference in the Persian Gulf area" and Secretary of State Edmund Muskie warned...
...pipelines to the Mediterranean. Between them, the two nations export just over 3 million bbl. per day, around 20% of gulf crude shipments, an amount that would not necessarily be critical at a time of a global oil glut. But there was the dire possibility that the Strait of Hormuz, 30 miles wide at its narrowest point, at the southern end of the gulf, might be closed because of the hostilities. Halting the flow of the supertankers that steam through the passage would have a devastating ripple effect (see following story) by preventing the shipment of oil from Saudi Arabia...
Carter's statements have been twofold. First, he has made extensive efforts to assure all parties, including the Soviet Union, that the United States wishes to remain neutral. Second, he has said the United States "cannot rule out" the use of force to keep the Strait of Hormuz open...
...warning about the Strait of Hormuz is an attempt to prevent the fighting from escalating to the point where it would affect a vital international interest. Sixty percent of the world's oil flows through the strait, and its cutoff would leave homes without heating oil and factories without fuel throughout the western world. Oil supplies are not a mere "phantom" of national security. The United States has only a six-week emergency supply of oil, and it would certainly take much longer for alternative energy sources and conservation to eliminate the shortage that blockage of the Strait would entail...
...This latest Middle East war has tested Carter's doctrine of military protection for Persian Gulf oil much sooner than expected. Pressed by reporters to clarify American intentions last week, administration spokesmen said they could not rule out the use of military force to keep open the Strait of Hormuz through which Persian Gulf passes on its way to consumer nations...