Iran Grants Some Iraqi Oil Tankers Passage Through Strait of Hormuz, State Media Says
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The Facts
- Iran has granted permission for a number of Iraqi oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday.
- IRNA said special passage for Iraqi tankers was one of Baghdad's main requests during Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf's visit to Iraq.
- IRNA said the permissions had been granted over the past six months.
- Iraqi President Nizar Amidi said some ships carrying Iraqi oil are being facilitated through the strait, speaking at the Baghdad Dialogue conference.
- Amidi said the issue of exporting Iraqi oil through Hormuz remains complicated.
- Iraq produced around 4 million barrels of oil per day before the outbreak of the war with Iran.
- Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains significantly below pre-war levels.
- Amidi said Iraq will not accept the use of its territory to launch attacks against any country.
Context
Why do Iraqi tankers need Iranian permission to use the strait?
Tehran asserts control over the waterway and requires permission and transit fees for passage, and Iraq exports the bulk of its crude oil through the strait Economic Times. Amidi said Iraq also faces difficulties moving its oil because it has no national tanker fleet Anadolu Ajansı.
How many Iraqi tankers were approved?
The number of Iraqi tankers that received Iranian approval has not been disclosed 경향신문. Amidi said only that "there is facilitation for some ships carrying Iraqi oil in the Strait of Hormuz," without elaborating Anadolu Ajansı,Middle East Monitor.
What is the wider situation in the strait?
The United States has effectively blockaded Iranian vessels in their ports, and ship-tracking data showed only four commodity ships sailed along the strait on Thursday, none of them large crude carriers or LNG tankers CNA. President Donald Trump said he views the Strait of Hormuz "as an American territory right now" LBC. Iraq is also exploring alternative export routes, including through Turkey's Ceyhan port and Syria EconoTimes,gCaptain.
Where Left and Right agree, and where they split
Left and right largely agree on this one.
- Where Left and Right agree
- Both read the six months of tanker permissions as proof that Baghdad's bargaining with Tehran, plus Amidi's no-attacks-from-Iraqi-soil line, beats force for reopening Hormuz.
- Where Left and Right differ in emphasis
- Both back negotiation over escalation; one because lost oil revenue falls on an ordinary country's budget, the other because a closed waterway isn't America's problem to fix with force.
- Why they won’t converge
- The divide is over trust rather than facts: one side reads a discretionary, case-by-case Iranian grant as proof bargaining works, the other as proof of who controls the tap, and no shared number settles which reading a permission slip supports.
How left and right read it
The people who pay for a closed waterway are not the ones who closed it: Iraq pumped some four million barrels a day before the war, and with Hormuz traffic still far below pre-war levels, that lost revenue comes out of an ordinary country's budget. So the quiet fact that talks between Baghdad and Tehran moved tankers over six months matters more than any show of force. Amidi is right that Iraqi soil must not launch attacks on anyone. Press that opening — reopen the strait through negotiation, not a wider war.
Not every closed waterway is an American problem to solve with force. Iraq is doing its own bargaining, because permissions for its tankers came over six months and ranked among Baghdad's main requests to Tehran, and Amidi has drawn his own line: Iraqi soil will not launch attacks on anyone. Hormuz traffic remains far below pre-war levels. Yet what would escalation secure that Iraq's own insistence has not already begun to?
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