DUBAI – An attack on Iran’s southern coast and islands will lead to Gulf routes being cut with the laying of sea mines, said the country’s Defence Council on March 23, according to state media.

The US is considering plans to occupy or blockade Iran’s Kharg Island, the country’s main oil export hub, to pressure Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to all shipping, according to Axios.

“Any attempt to attack Iran’s coasts or islands will cause all access routes in the Gulf... to be mined with various types of sea mines, including floating mines that can be released from the coast,” the statement read.

“In this case, the entire Gulf will practically be in a situation similar to the Strait of Hormuz for a long time... One should not forget the failure of more than 100 minesweepers in the 1980s in removing a few sea mines.”

The Defence Council recalled that non-belligerent states can pass through the Strait of Hormuz only by coordinating passage with Iran. REUTERS

LOS ANGELES/LONDON – The Western allies trying to negotiate a way to protect the Strait of Hormuz for energy shipping face a stark reality: a similar effort in the Red Sea that began years earlier cost billions of dollars and ultimately failed against Yemen’s Houthis.

The costly Red Sea experience – four ships sunk, more than US$1 billion (S$1.28 billion) in weapons expended and a route that the shipping industry still largely avoids – looms over the more complex Strait of Hormuz, the shipping artery used by roughly a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supply and now blocked by Iran, a more formidable adversary than the Houthis.

Iran’s threats to the strait and its attacks on energy infrastructure in nearby Gulf nations have sent oil prices soaring in the worst disruption to oil and gas supplies in history.