'Not ideal for one country to have control over shipping'

Jasmine El-Gamal, former Pentagon Middle East advisor and CEO of Averos Strategies, said on Thursday that there will be multiple parties at the table trying to come up with a workable solution that evokes collective security of the Strait of Hormuz.

Gamal, in a conversation with ANI, was asked about the future of the Strait of Hormuz, to which she said that it is not ideal for any one country to have total control over global shipping.

"Well, that obviously is going to be unacceptable for the US and also not an ideal situation for any country. For any one country to have total control over global shipping and, as a result, global markets is not a workable solution. So you are going to see multiple parties at the table trying to come up with a workable solution that evokes collective security of the strait," she said.

Gamal said that Oman has already been in talks with Iran to start talking about potential solutions for this.

"How that happens remains to be seen. Oman has already been in talks with Iran to start talking about potential solutions for this, where Iran feels it's okay with it, but also other countries feel as well. Iran, also, through the Houthis, Ansar Allah in Yemen, has effective potential control over Bab al-Mandeb, which goes into the Red Sea, which is an alternative shipping route. And then, of course, you have the Suez Canal and the Cape of Good Hope down south," she said.

Gamal said that negotiations will be over what a kind of global collective responsibility around the Strait of Hormuz looks like.

"So there are multiple shipping routes, but of course, the main one, one of the main ones, if not the main one, that's being used is the Strait of Hormuz. So that's why I think you will start to see negotiations over what a kind of global collective responsibility around that strait looks like. They're not going to be easy conversations because Iran feels like it has proven that it can control the Strait, and nobody can really do anything about it without imposing a very high cost on them. But we'll see how the negotiations go," she said.