Middle East War: Analyst says Strait of Hormuz situation 'highly uncertain'

With its effective closure sending shockwaves through the global economy, the Strait of Hormuz has been much discussed throughout the Iran war.

Some experts say the situation around the vital oil chokepoint remains uncertain, with Iran continuing to signal its intent to target ships that do not use its preferred transit route.

Torbjorn Soltvedt, principal Middle East analyst at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft, says, "we've seen renewed attacks against onshore facilities. So from Iran's point of view, the intention is still very much clear. They do intend to strike against any ships that transit the Strait of Hormuz that aren't passing through the Iran-approved route, which we've seen develop over the last number of weeks now. So, for shipping companies it's a slightly uncertain situation."

On Monday, the United States launched a bid to unblock the Strait of Hormuz so commercial ships could pass through the shipping lane freely.

However some experts believe this endeavour won't have the desired outcome.

Soltvedt added, "this [US] initiative alone isn't something that looks like it's going to open the Straight of Hormuz. That can really only be done through either an agreement between the United States or Iran or whether resumption of conflict where the US significantly diminishes Iran's ability to carry out drones and missiles and diminishes Iran's ability to use boats to harass shipping in the Strait of Hormuz."

Before the war broke out, around a fifth of the world's oil and liquified natural gas would pass through the Strait.