The South Korean presidency announced on Friday that Seoul is considering making a "contribution" to secure navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, which has witnessed increasing tension since the outbreak of war between the United States and Iran.
A presidential spokesman said, “Any contributions related to the Strait of Hormuz can be managed within limits that do not affect South Korea’s military readiness in the face of the threats to which it is exposed,” noting that this issue is still under study.
South Korean TV channel JTBC confirmed on Thursday that the government was ready to deploy military resources in the Strait of Hormuz, but the Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs later indicated that no decision had been taken in this regard.
On August 16, US President Donald Trump announced a reduction in the United States’ participation in annual joint military exercises with South Korea, linking his decision to the then South Korean president’s refusal to participate in the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Preliminary shipping data on Friday showed that four commodity shipping ships transited the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, down from nine ships the day before, and well below the average of about 15 ships over the past 10 days.
Kpler data showed that the ships included, as of (04:55 GMT), two medium-range tankers, a Kamsarmax tanker, and a Handy-size ship.
The number of ships crossing the waterway may change, as some ships turn off their transponders while sailing.
The United States has been seeking for months to persuade its allies to participate militarily in securing navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, through which before the war was crossed by a fifth of the amount of fuel consumed globally, while Tehran targets ships that attempt to cross the Strait without a permit.
Reuters quoted three high-ranking Iranian sources as saying that the American campaign aimed at strangling the Iranian economy by restricting oil exports and stopping sanctions evasion "has become more severe on Tehran."
The United States recently expanded the scope of secondary sanctions on countries that trade with Iran, in an attempt to deprive it of using the dollar to settle oil sales transactions and finance its vital imports of goods and raw materials.
The sources add that “efforts to deprive Iran of access to international financing networks in other countries have become a real and urgent threat,” after Tehran has been relying on this for a long time to keep the economy moving.
The sources also explained that financial pressures in themselves affect Tehran’s efforts to circumvent the sanctions regime, as they leave it with less cash to pay the high bonuses required by illegal sanctions evasion, according to them.
The Iranian rial has fallen to unprecedented low levels over the past few days.
One Iranian source said that the country only has gasoline stocks sufficient for two additional months, which must be imported despite domestic oil production due to its limited refining capacity.
As for restricting its oil exports, a high-ranking source commented on Tehran’s statements that it possesses tens of millions of barrels stored in tankers outside the blockade area that it can sell, saying that “new sanctions would push intermediaries to back down or demand larger amounts.”
