Nor, presumably, would they want the world to test their claim that they can shut off the Strait of Hormuz—when they make this threat, they are quick to add that they “don’t want to.” Closing the waterway through which a quarter of the world’s oil trade flows would not only harm the global economy and stick it to regional adversaries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, it would also deeply inconvenience Iran’s few friends and sympathizers.