Bahrain’s Hormuz resolution runs into fresh obstacles at UN

Bahrain’s effort to secure a UN resolution to authorize “all necessary means” to protect commercial shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz ran into new obstacles today, underscoring divisions over how to deal with Iran’s effective closure of the waterway that has resulted in the worst energy-supply disruption ever.

Bahrain, which took over the presidency of the 15-member UN Security Council for the month of April, had circulated a fresh version of a draft resolution that dropped a previous explicit reference to binding enforcement, hoping to overcome objections from other nations, particularly Russia and China.

But a UN diplomat said China, Russia and France raised issues with the new draft before it would have gone into final form at noon today under a so-called silence procedure – where a resolution is adopted if no member objects. Bahrain’s UN ambassador Jamal Fares Alrowaiei told reporters the resolution still required “a lot of work.”

Major Gulf and Western powers still do not have a concrete plan to reopen the waterway, which has been effectively shut since the conflict began a month ago, sending energy prices soaring. Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas normally transits the crucial strait.

“There are ongoing communications and discussions with the Council members to bring a convergence of views and find a draft that can garner consensus, so that it can be adopted soon,” Alrowaiei says.