| ▲ | 0xffff2 5 hours ago | ||||||||||||||||||||||
I basically believe you're right, but I can't wrap my head around this: How is it that they still have any control at all of the strait after all of this? Is their significantly depleted missile force enough of a threat as long as they have any credible capability whatsoever left? | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | tristanj 5 hours ago | parent | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Iran "controls" the strait by shooting missiles at any ship that passes through without paying them a protection fee. This includes ships that pass through Omani waters, which it has no legal control of. It's terrorism, and also an act of war. Iran built thousands of fast-attack speedboats which patrol the strait, get up close, fire a few missiles, and quickly return. This video gives a good explanation of their strategy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKJHaODzP-0 This can be mitigated by the US/Gulf Countries, with a large number of airplanes / drones patrolling the Iranian shore, and preventing these boats from launching. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| ▲ | int_19h 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
The straight is narrow enough that they could use artillery to hit the ships in it. And for US and/or Israel to prevent it, they would have to occupy the correspondingly wide strip of Iranian coast. At which point we're talking about a massive ground invasion (and of course then the same artillery would be firing at those troops, so you can't really just stop there either). | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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