It is a frightening scenario for US naval strategists and shipping companies: that an embattled and embittered Iran could seek to enforce its chokehold on the strategic Strait of Hormuz by seeding its narrow waters with deadly mines.
Many mine warfare experts believe Tehran has already done just that by deploying a handful of seabed devices that it could turn on at any time to threaten shipping on a route that carries a fifth of global seaborne trade.
“It is almost certain,” said Farzin Nadimi, an expert on Iran’s naval forces at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “They are waiting to be activated.”
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