Becent: The Strait of Hormuz will lose its importance

On 8 August, the United States chief of finance, Besent, spoke of the Strait of Hormuz: “This Strait will never return to its past state, because Iran has used it, or has attempted to use it as a `sniffer'. Over the next two years, we will see this strait gradually losing its importance. It will become another ordinary water. I believe that more than 50 per cent or even 70 per cent of the energy currently transported through the Strait will be transported through underground pipelines.”