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The Strait of Hormuz (Persian: تنگه هرمز - Tangeh-ye Hormoz, Arabic: مضيق هرمز - Madīq Hurmuz) is a narrow, strategically important waterway between the Gulf of Oman in the southeast and the Persian Gulf in the southwest. On the north coast is Iran and on the south coast is the United Arab Emirates and Musandam, an exclave of Oman.
The strait at its narrowest is 21 miles wide.The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (A historical perspective). Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea. UN. It is the only sea passage to the open ocean for large areas of the petroleum-exporting Persian Gulf States. Some 30 percent of the world\'s oil supply passes through the strait, making it one of the world\'s strategically important chokepoints.Anthony Shadid. "With Iran Ascendant, U.S. Is Seen at Fault", washingtonpost.com, January 30 2007. Retrieved on 2007-12-29. "Thirty-two killed by Oman cyclone", BBC News, June 8 2007. Retrieved on 2007-12-29.
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Ships moving through the Strait follow a Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS), which separates inbound from outbound traffic to reduce the risk of collision. The traffic lane is six miles wide, including two two-mile-wide traffic lanes, one inbound and one outbound, separated by a two-mile wide separation median.
To traverse the Strait, ships pass through the territorial waters of Iran and Oman under the transit passage provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Although not all states have ratified the convention,Chronological lists of ratifications of, accessions and successions to the Convention and the related Agreements as at 26 October 2007. Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea. UN. most states, including the U.S.,U.S. President Ronald Reagan (March 10, 1983), Presidential Proclamtion 5030, <http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/58381.pdf>. Retrieved on 21 January 2008 accept these customary navigation rules as codified in the Convention.
The opening to the Persian Gulf was described, but not given a name, in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, a 1st-century mariner\'s guide:
There are two opinions about the etymology of this name. In popular belief the derivation is from the name of the Persian God هرمز Hormoz (a variant of Ahura Mazda). Compare the Pillars of Hercules at the entrance to the Mediterranean. Scholars, historians and linguists derive the name "Ormuz" from the local Persian word هورمغ Hur-mogh meaning datepalm. In the local dialects of Hurmoz and Minab this strait is still called Hurmogh and has the aforementioned meaning.
On 18 April 1988, the U.S. Navy waged a one-day battle against Iranian forces in and around the strait. The battle, dubbed Operation Praying Mantis by the U.S. side, was launched in retaliation for the 14 April mining of the USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58). U.S. forces sank two Iranian warships and as many as six armed speedboats in the engagement.
On July 3, 1988, 290 people were killed when an Iran Air Airbus A300 passenger jet was shot down over the strait by the United States Navy guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes. There is still lingering controversy about the event, considered among the most controversial tragedies in aviation history.
On January 10, 2007, the nuclear submarine USS Newport News, traveling submerged, struck M/V Mogamigawa, a 300,000-ton Japanese-flagged very large crude tanker, south of the strait.Jack Dorsey (10 January 2007). Navy says speed of tanker sucked submarine up to surface. The Virginian Pilot.
A series of naval stand-offs between Iranian speedboats and US warships in the Strait of Hormuz occurred in December 2007 and January 2008. US officials accused Iran of harassing and provoking their naval vessels; Iran denied it. On January 14 2008, US naval officials appeared to contradict the Pentagon version of the Jan. 16 event, in which U.S. officials said U.S. vessels were near to firing on approaching Iranian boats. The Navy\'s regional commander, Vice Admiral Kevin Cosgriff, said the Iranians had "neither anti-ship missiles nor torpedoes" and that he "wouldn\'t characterize the posture of the US 5th Fleet as afraid of these small boats".David Isenberg (10 January 2008). A game of chicken in the Persian Gulf. AsiaTimes (with content from BloombergNews).
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