Three small islands sit near the entrance of the Strait of Hormuz. Abu Musa belongs to the emirate of Sharjah. Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb belonged to Ras al-Khaimah. In November 1971, two days…
The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran is eighty-five years old. His health has been the subject of sustained speculation for years, with periodic reports of serious illness that the…
Saudi Aramco processes more oil through fewer facilities than any other company on earth. The Abqaiq oil processing facility in the Eastern Province handles a majority of Saudi crude production,…
Bahrain is the smallest country in the Gulf and hosts the most consequential piece of American military infrastructure in the Middle East. Naval Support Activity Bahrain, home to the US Fifth Fleet…
Iran operates submarines in the Strait of Hormuz and the broader Gulf of Oman. The fleet is not large, and the vessels are not modern by the standards of major naval powers. What they represent is a…
China imports more oil than any other nation on earth. A majority of that oil originates in the Persian Gulf. The overwhelming majority of that Gulf oil moves through the Strait of Hormuz. This…
A tanker that does not appear on tracking screens is not invisible. It is simply operating in the gap between the legal obligation to broadcast its position and the practical inability of enforcement…
The 2019 attack on the Abqaiq oil processing facility used cruise missiles and drones. The subsequent attacks on tankers in the Gulf of Oman used limpet mines and, in some cases, explosive-laden fast…
Before February 2022, European energy security analysis treated the Persian Gulf as a significant but secondary concern. The primary vulnerabilities ran through Ukrainian pipeline corridors and…
The Strait of Hormuz has a sister chokepoint at the other end of the Arabian Peninsula. Bab-el-Mandeb, the narrow passage between Yemen and Djibouti that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden,…