“A lot of people think international relations is like a game of chess. But it’s not a game of chess, where people sit quietly, thinking out their strategy, taking their time between moves. It’s more like a game of billiards, with a bunch of balls clustered together.” Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright.
Might makes right. This is exactly Trump’s gameplan. We triumph over our enemies. Seize Maduro, threaten to take over the Panama canal, make threats to invade Greenland and economically cripple Cuba (which honestly we’ve done).
And in his second term, he’s definitely surrounds himslf with inexperience people who will agree with him, every step of the way. Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth. And his “outside advisers” Mohamed bin Salam (Saudi Arabia) and Benjamin Netanyahu (israel).
In all this fury and bravo, to Trump, international law is forgotten. The sovereignty of nations is lost. This unfortunately puts Trump and Putin in the same camp. Long diplomatic discussions do not make headline news.
But, he should have paid more attention to the Straits of Hormuz. Iran has controls this 24 mile critical passage for all cargo ships. Iran wants the US to acknowledge their sovereignty over the strait as part of a negotiated peace.
Iran has a new demand to end the war – and it could bring in billions
“Not only is this illegal, it’s unacceptable, it’s dangerous to the world, and it’s important that the world have a plan to confront it,” Rubio said after a G7 meeting in France.
All of a sudden, Marco Rubio is an internationalist! We need unity and respect for international law.
Is what Iran is suggesting illegal?
An agreement between the US and Iran, allowing them to charge a toll to pass through the strait would violate the right to free passage of all ships. However, these rights are part of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The US and Iran are not parties to this Convention. Big mistake!
Wikipedia identifies countries like the US which never signed and ratified the convention and are not party to the current agreement. Ronald Reagan, a Republican, opposed the Law of the Sea Convention in 1982. President Bill Clinton, signed the 1994 agreement, yet we are not a party to the Convention.
Other counties that are not party to UNCLOS include Iran, Israel, Venezuela, Syria, North Korea, Turkey and Libya. The reasons for the US not joining, are summarized on Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_and_the_United_Nations_Convention_on_the_Law_of_the_Sea
It is interesting that President Bush, a Republican, was in favor of joining the Convention. Other organizations like the American Petroleum Institute, a lobbying group for the oil industry, were in support of joining UNCLOS.
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