7 April 2026
Russia, China veto UN resolution on security of Strait of Hormuz
Russia and China on Tuesday opposed a UN Security Council resolution aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which has been repeatedly closed in the hope that the superpowers would refrain from doing so.
The vote ended 11-2, with Pakistan and Colombia abstaining.
About a fifth of the world’s oil typically passes through Iran’s coastline.
Bahrain had proposed the resolution, which encouraged states to “coordinate efforts of a defensive nature, as appropriate to the circumstances, to contribute to ensuring the safety of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.”
How this would work in practice, and whether any navy would be willing to deploy naval assets in the narrow waterway amid tensions and fighting in the region, is not entirely clear, although the text recommends naval escort as one option and deterrence as another.
“Failing to adopt this resolution sends a wrong signal to the world, to the people of the world,” Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani said after the vote.
The US had supported the resolution, also in its original draft form, which would have more clearly authorized the use of force to protect cargo.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said of Iran, “No one should tolerate that they are holding the global economy at gunpoint.”
“But today, Russia and China tolerate it. They side with a regime that seeks to intimidate the Gulf, even as it brutalizes its own people during national blackouts for daring to imagine dignity or freedom.”
Russia and China have blamed the US and Israel for starting the war in Iran and now the wider Gulf region. He argued in the Security Council that the first priority should be to stop the fighting, saying this would make it easier to pass through the straits.