Iran's Hormuz Leverage Eroding as Alternative Oil Routes Expand
🛢️ HORMUZ — Tehran's chokehold is loosening before it ever forced a concession. 📌 LOOK CLOSER: Gulf producers routing around Hormuz — Saudi East-West Pipeline at 3.5M bpd, UAE overland capacity expanding — progressively detaches oil prices from Iranian threat credibility. Every barrel rerouted narrows the coercive value of blockade threats. Tehran's negotiating leverage was always time-sensitive; the WSJ framing signals markets and Washington are pricing it as already spent.
