The United Nations Security Council is set to vote Tuesday on a diluted resolution urging the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping lane that has been effectively blocked amid the wider conflict in the region. The vote, scheduled for 11:00 a.m. New York time (1500 GMT), comes after days of intensive negotiation that stripped from the text any explicit authorization to use force — a move intended to avoid a veto from key Council members but which leaves the measure short of the Gulf sponsors’ original aims.
Bahrain, backed by the United States and other oil-exporting Gulf states, initiated the effort two weeks ago seeking a clear UN mandate that would have allowed states to take military action to restore navigation. That initial draft, however, faced strong opposition from permanent Council members including France, Russia and China, prompting repeated delays and reworking of the language. A draft seen by AFP on Monday no longer mentions authorization to use force, even defensively, reflecting those diplomatic concessions.
The timing of the vote is politically fraught. It falls just hours before U.S. President Donald Trump’s self-imposed 8:00 p.m. deadline (midnight GMT) for Iran to reopen the waterway or face U.S. strikes on Iranian power plants and bridges. The White House ultimatum has heightened international concern over a rapid military escalation, even as Security Council members seek to present a united diplomatic front.
The most recent draft shifts the emphasis to coordinated, “defensive in nature” measures rather than an explicit right to employ force. It “strongly encourages states … to coordinate efforts, defensive in nature, commensurate to the circumstances, to contribute to ensuring the safety and security of navigation, including through the escort of merchant and commercial vessels,” according to diplomats briefed on the text. It also “demands” that Iran immediately cease attacks on merchant and commercial vessels and refrain from impeding transit passage or freedom of navigation in the strait, and calls for an end to assaults on civilian water, oil and gas infrastructure.
Bahrain’s UN ambassador, Jamal Alrowaiei, has framed the initiative as a response to what he described as “economic terrorism,” arguing that disruptions to the Hormuz corridor — which Tehran has effectively obstructed since the United States and Israel launched the war on February 28 — are reverberating through the global economy. France’s envoy, Jerome Bonnafont, has urged the Council to “swiftly develop the necessary defensive response,” language that helped allay some Parisian concerns by framing any action as defensive.
Still, Russia and China — both wary of a Council text that could be used to justify broad military intervention — retain the ability to block the measure, and diplomats say a veto remains a real possibility. Analysts say the compromise draft offers a diplomatic victory to Bahrain and its backers in securing a firm international rebuke of Iran’s obstruction, while allowing Russia and China to prevent the Council from endorsing what they view as a potentially escalatory military response. Daniel Forti, head of UN affairs at the International Crisis Group, summarized the trade-off as a split between securing diplomatic condemnation and avoiding Council endorsement of force.
UN mandates explicitly authorizing the use of force are rare and politically charged; past examples include the 1990 resolution that backed the U.S.-led coalition in the Gulf War and the 2011 Libya authorization that Moscow later said had exceeded its original intention. If the watered-down text passes, it would stop short of granting legal cover for large-scale combat operations but would increase international diplomatic pressure on Tehran even as the region braces for what could be a decisive U.S. move outside the Security Council framework.