UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council is negotiating on a draft resolution introduced by Bahrain to authorize states to use "all necessary means" to ensure freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, diplomatic sources said Monday.
The draft text, seen by AFP, also demands that Iran "immediately cease all attacks against merchant and commercial vessels and any attempt to impede lawful transit passage or freedom of navigation" in and around the Strait.
Just a trickle of cargo ships and tankers, most of them Iranian, have made it through the Strait since Iran effectively blocked it in response to US-Israeli attacks on the country that began three weeks ago.
Normally, about a fifth of global crude oil and liquefied natural gas pass through the Strait.
The draft resolution proposes allowing member states "to use all necessary means" -- including within the territorial waters of littoral states within or bordering the Strait -- "to secure transit passage and to repress, neutralize and deter attempts to close, obstruct or otherwise interfere with international navigation" there.
The draft also threatens targeted sanctions against those who "undermine navigational rights and freedoms" in the Strait.
The resolution text could be modified during the negotiations among member states in the 15-member council, the UN's highest decision-making body.
Its chances of approval by the council, where the five permanent members have veto power, remain unclear.
Bahrain, acting on behalf of the Gulf states, was behind a resolution adopted by the council in mid-March that demanded the "immediate cessation" of Iranian attacks against the Gulf states and Jordan.