I have yet to see anyone describe why transit through the strait should morally be left unencumbered by Iran and Oman. The strait is only about 35 miles wide but international waters don’t start until 230 statute miles offshore. Does the US not assert authority over waters between Florida and Cuba (110 miles) or Florida and Bahamas (125 miles)?
this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2026
35 points (100.0% liked)
World News
56628 readers
1915 users here now
A community for discussing events around the World
Rules:
-
Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
-
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
-
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed.
-
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
-
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF OCTOBER 19 2025
-
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
-
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
-
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
Lemmy World Partners
News !news@lemmy.world
Politics !politics@lemmy.world
World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world
Recommendations
For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/
- Consider including the article’s mediabiasfactcheck.com/ link
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
The treaty that mentions those 230 miles also says those waters must be freely navigable. Yes, even the ones between Florida and Cuba.
But also those treaties are written by agreements made mostly at the end of wars. I think the current one is from the Brazil vs. France very heated¹ one. That's just how those things evolve.
But again, there isn't any clear way for Iran and Oman to keep those waters closed at peace time. They almost certainly won't start wars with any country that wants to move ships there.
1 - In the Summer, near Fortaleza, it should be near 40°C there!
So the US should welcome, say, Russian (or perhaps Iranian) boats heading to Cuba or Mexico, regularly coming about 15 miles offshore of Miami without buying US-approved insurance policies?
Why shouldn't a natural strait be left morally unencumbered by Iran and Oman?
If the question is truly about morality, why would the US be part of it?
I suppose it’s not really about morality but more about rules-for-thee-but-not-for-me. I don’t think the US would be cool with Russian or Iranian ships coming very close to Miami on their way to Cuba or Mexico, especially without US-approved insurance or maintenance records.
Hormuz is a natural strait and leads to a natural gulf, but they are entirely within territorial water boundaries of several tightly packed countries. I can see many reasonable justifications for countries to assert control of ship traffic very close to their land borders. Smuggling, pollution, risk of catastrophe, etc.
Of course there are huge financial interests in returning to the status quo ante, and media mostly takes for granted that it’s the way things should be. I just want an introductory explainer of why, and how reciprocal that is to other navigational norms worldwide.