Iran would not be allowed to draw line in water, Centcom CoS told me months ago

Posted Dec 27, 2011 by Howard Altman

Updated Dec 27, 2011 at 08:18 PM

A few months ago, I had a wide-ranging conversation with U.S. Central Command Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Karl Horst in his old office at MacDill Air Force Base (before he and the rest of the command moved into their new digs) and one of the many topics we touched on was what would happen if Iran blocked shipping in the Straight of Hormuz, through which a good chunk of the world’s crude oil flows via ships.

The bottom line?

“I think, as a coalition, we have to keep those waterways open,” Horst told me.

With Iran making threats to stop ships from traveling the Straight if further sanctions are issued against it, and with the Iranian Navy conducting exercises in the Straight, I figured now is a good time to revisit that part of my conversation with Horst.

Q) What are there contingency plans for if Iran assumes a more aggressive posture?

A) One of the things we have to do is ensure freedom of commerce through the major waterways in the Middle East which would be the Straight of Hormuz, Bab al-Mandeb, so freedom of navigation, freedom of movement is an important issue for us. I think that is an issue that extends not only to the United States and Centcom, but to the greater global community. A large number of our European allies use those waterways as well, so I think that freedom of navigation, freedom of movement is very important to us, so I think as a coalition we have to keep those waterways open.

Q) A line drawn in the water?

A) No, but we have to make sure that people don’t have a line drawn in front of them to keep them from maneuvering. I don’t think we will draw a line in the water, what we will do is keep someone else from drawing a line in the water that allows us to move in the international waters off the Straight of Hormuz. The important part of that is that is an international waterway. And that can stay open without infringing on anybody’s territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. So what we are enforcing is the international maritime laws that allow commerce to move through unimpeded.

I have a request into Centcom’s PAO shop to see if, given the current situation, what if any amplification MG Horst might be able to offer on how U.S. forces in the region would react to an Iranian closure of the Straight.

Stay tuned. Or, as Bob Murphy used to say, “fasten your seatbelts.”