Photo : YONHAP News / Reuters
The United Nations Security Council(UNSC) is expected to vote next week on a Bahrain-drafted resolution that aims to protect commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz by authorizing use of force.
Reuters, citing multiple diplomats, said on Friday that a meeting of the Council’s 15 member states, initially set for Friday, was rescheduled to Saturday, then postponed until next week without a fixed date.
Bahrain’s UN mission did not immediately respond to Reuter’s request for comment on the delay, but the resolution authorizing “all defensive means necessary” to protect the shipping route reportedly faced opposition from China, Russia and others.
Bahrain, with backing from the Gulf Arab states and the United States, previously ​dropped an explicit reference to binding enforcement in consideration of such opposition from China and Russia.
Iran’s effective closure of the maritime choke point amid its conflict with the U.S. and Israel has caused global oil prices to soar, resulting in gasoline prices in South Korea to break one-thousand-900 won per liter.