A naval blockade is an act of war, but U.S. ships would not fire on ships attempting to run it, says Mark Norman, a retired Royal Canadian Navy vice-admiral and fellow with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. The mission would be to intercept and interdict, order them to stop, possibly using warning shots. Boarding and seizing ships would involve dropping troops by helicopter. ‘That gets pretty dicey,’ Norman said.
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The ‘dangerous dance’ of duelling blockades in Strait of Hormuz
With Iran blockading the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. threatening its own blockade of major Iranian ports, China’s massive need for oil could be caught in the middle, says Janice Stein of the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. ‘This is a dance. A dangerous one.’