{"id":216439,"date":"2026-07-21T12:29:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T12:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/216439\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T12:29:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T12:29:10","slug":"iran-controlled-hormuz-islands-back-in-focus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/216439\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran-controlled Hormuz islands back in focus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">With little sign of momentum in peace talks between the US and Iran, attention has returned to three small islands that are crucial to controlling the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Lying at the mouth of the Gulf chokepoint, the islands \u2014 Abu Musa, Greater Tunb, and Lesser Tunb \u2014 have been held by Iran since 1971, but are claimed by the UAE.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">They have <a data-ylk=\"slk:come under US fire over the past week;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/iran-us-war-abu-musa-tunb-kharg-islands-e98279652479c24a99c9907177ecb990\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">come under US fire over the past week<\/a>. &#8220;If external powers look for ways to reshape security in the Strait of Hormuz, <a data-ylk=\"slk:these islands are an obvious focal point;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hahellyer\/status\/2034605794809839712\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">these islands are an obvious focal point<\/a> \u2014 with relatively limited diplomatic cost given the ambiguity around sovereignty,&#8221; writes H.A. Hellyer, a fellow at the London-based Royal United Services Institute.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u2014 <a data-ylk=\"slk:Mohammed Sergie;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.semafor.com\/author\/mohammed-sergie\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Mohammed Sergie<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With little sign of momentum in peace talks between the US and Iran, attention has returned to three&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[28],"tags":[10179,10338,102,34,10122,101],"class_list":["post-216439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-strait-of-hormuz","tag-abu-musa","tag-external-powers","tag-hormuz","tag-iran","tag-peace-talks","tag-strait-of-hormuz"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116957974603814988","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}