Description
In recent years, there have been a number of incidents in the Persian Gulf, including the following.
In January 2016, two US navy command boats entered Iranian waters and the Iranian navy detained ten US sailors, releasing them the following day. The US navy claimed that Iran had impeded the boat’s innocent passage transit and had violated US ‘sovereign immunity by boarding, searching and seizing the boats’.
In July 2019, after UK forces had detained an Iranian tanker near Gibraltar on suspicion of taking Iranian oil to Syria in breach of EU sanctions, Iranian forces seized a British-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz.
On 12 August 2020, Iranian armed forces boarded a commercial tanker in international waters near the Strait of Hormuz.
Both the US and Iran have carried out military exercises in international waters near the Strait of Hormuz. On 16 April 2020, the US Navy accused Iranian vessels of harassing warships in international waters in the Gulf during a military exercise.
In July 2020, Iran fired ballistic missiles during a military drill in the area.
Iran has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz.
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In relation to the incidents above, you are asked to advise on the following:
(a) briefly explain the legal status of the Strait of Hormuz;
(b) advise whether the US and Iran are parties to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (UNCLOS) and, if not, what international law would be applicable; and
(c) advise how relevant provisions of UNCLOS would apply to each of these incidents.
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