I'm John Batchler. I welcome my colleague Cliff May, the founder and president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies,

looking at the Strait of Hormuz, called a choke point in modern language,

leading to now uncertainty about the global economy, as well as the energy markets, indefinitely. Uncertainty.

Cliff, a very good evening to you. I become

immediately to something that I have understood makes sense to seafaring people. The threat to the

Strait of Hormuz, the attacks on shipping the Strait of Hormuz, the challenge by the Islamic

Republic of Iran, is an act of piracy, I've been told,

and that has weight for the freedom of the seas.

Your new column in the Washington Times makes the same point.

Please explain to the audience what that means about the Islamic regime itself and what that means in warfare against pirates. Good evening to you.

Good evening to you. Yes. Well, let me try to unpack this quickly and succinctly. The Strait of Hermous is one of the most strategic waterways in the world, something like 20% of all the hydrocarbon, all the oil that

is delivered to the world, comes through that very narrow channel.

The straight is about 21 miles wide.

The navigation lanes are only about two miles wide.

Nevertheless, it's an international waterway. Freedom of the

seas is among the oldest of international laws, going back to Hugo von Grosius, who I'm sure you

remember, but most of your listeners will not. It is now called Freedom of Navigation. It is a basic

international law, but the regime in Tehran, the Islamist regime in Tehran says, no, it's ours.

And if we see ships going through it that we don't like, we will simply hit them and sink them.

We can do that because we control this choke point of the energy world.

Kind of what the Houthis have been doing on another strategic waterway, the Bob Almondab.

Now, what does that remind me of?

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