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(Reuters) – Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani told the United Nations Security Council on Thursday he hopes for a council vote on Friday on a resolution Bahrain has drafted to protect commercial shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz.
Oil prices have surged since the U.S. and Israel struck Iran at the end of February, kicking off a conflict that has now exceeded a month and effectively closed the strait to shipping traffic.
Bahrain has presented Security Council members with a fourth draft of a resolution that would authorize “all necessary means” to protect commercial shipping in and around the Strait.
It had previously dropped an explicit reference to binding enforcement in a bid to overcome objections from other nations, particularly Russia and China, and the latest draft seen by Reuters sets a six-month time limit for the steps.
“We look forward to a unified position from this esteemed Council during the vote that will take place on the draft resolution tomorrow, God willing,” Al Zayani told a meeting of the 15-member council, which Bahrain currently chairs.
He said Iran’s “unlawful and unjustified attempt to control international navigation in the Strait of Hormuz” threatened the interests of nations and peoples around the world and “requires a decisive response.”
While effectively authorizing use of force “in the Strait of Hormuz and adjacent waters, including within the territorial waters of littoral States within or bordering the Strait,” the latest draft specifies that such steps should be “defensive in nature.”
On Wednesday U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to continue attacks, but did not lay out a plan to re-open the strait, which sent oil prices even higher as his words raised concerns that the U.S. may not play a major role in ensuring safe passage for shippers through the crucial waterway.
Diplomats say the latest resolution been placed under a so-called silence procedure until noon (1600 GMT) on Thursday and will proceed to a vote if no Security Council member objects by that time.
Reporting by David Brunnstrom; additional reporting by John Irish in Paris; editng by Michelle Nichols
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