Seven islands that hold the keys to the Strait of Hormuz

 

With thousands of US ground troops reportedly on the way to the Middle East, speculation is mounting that they may be assigned to take Iran’s Kharg Island, a key fuel hub in the northern Persian Gulf which handles 90% of Tehran’s oil exports.

But Kharg is just one of dozens of Iranian islands in the gulf, and others may be more important to securing the safe passage of ships – and naval vessels – through the Strait of Hormuz.

Seven of these islands – Abu Musa, Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, Hengam, Qeshm, Larak and Hormuz – form what researchers at Sun Yat-sen University in Zhuhai, China, call Iran’s “arch defense.”

“A hypothetical curve connecting these islands would further help to understand Iran’s strategic superiority in controlling the security” of the Hormuz strait, Iranian researcher Enayatollah Yazdani and Chinese researcher Ma Yanzhe wrote in a 2022 paper for the Canadian Center of Science and Education.

Abu Musa, Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb – the smallest of the seven and at the western end of the arch – are key to strait control, the two researchers wrote.