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Opinion

The US Should Sell Iran’s Shadow Fleet for $25 Billion

Take the opportunity that the successful blockade provides.
The US Should Sell Iran’s Shadow Fleet for $25 Billion
A vessel at the Strait of Hormuz, off the coast of Oman’s Musandam province, on April 12, 2026. Reuters
Anders Corr
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Commentary
The blockade of shipping into and out of Iran’s ports is apparently working. Twenty-one vessels reversed course due to the U.S. blockade by April 17. Five sanctioned tankers responded to a U.S. announcement that ships transporting Iranian oil would be blocked globally, not just in the Strait. Most recently, at least two of these transporting three million barrels of oil towards Asia turned around in the Indian Ocean, and at least two empty shadow ships in the Gulf of Oman reversed course. This puts significant pressure on Iran during negotiations.
Anders Corr
Anders Corr
Author
Anders Corr has a bachelor’s/master’s in political science from Yale University (2001) and a doctorate in government from Harvard University (2008). He is a principal at Corr Analytics Inc. and publisher of the Journal of Political Risk, and has conducted extensive research in North America, Europe, and Asia. His latest books are “The Concentration of Power: Institutionalization, Hierarchy, and Hegemony” (2021) and “Great Powers, Grand Strategies: the New Game in the South China Sea” (2018).
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