UN Fails to Pass Resolution to Open Strait of Hormuz After Russia and China Veto
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, NEW YORK – The UN Security Council failed to adopt a draft resolution calling for coordinated defensive measures to ensure freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday (7/4/2026). Russia and China vetoed the draft resolution.
In the voting process, the resolution proposed by Bahrain was supported by 11 countries, including the United States (US), the United Kingdom, and France. Two countries, namely Colombia and Pakistan, chose to abstain.
Following the vote, Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayan expressed his disappointment over the Security Council’s failure to adopt the resolution drafted by his country. “The Council has failed to fulfil its responsibility regarding illegal actions that require firm action without delay,” he said, quoted by Anadolu.
Bahrain is currently holding the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council. The Bahrain-drafted resolution on the Strait of Hormuz called for several measures.
The draft urged countries to “coordinate efforts, which are defensive in nature and appropriate to the circumstances, to contribute to ensuring the safety and security of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, including through the escorting of commercial and trading ships, and to prevent attempts to close, obstruct, or disrupt international navigation through the Strait of Hormuz”.
In addition, the draft resolution requested that the Security Council members’ coordination efforts be “defensive” in nature and take “all appropriate measures” to ensure that their activities are “conducted fully in accordance with international humanitarian law”.
The Bahrain-drafted resolution also called for “respecting the rights and freedoms of navigation” of third-party countries, with the aim of ensuring “unimpeded and unhindered passage through the Strait of Hormuz”.
In response to the aggression launched by the US and Israel on 28 February 2026, Iran decided to strictly restrict ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. This action has triggered a surge in global oil prices. Approximately 20 percent of the world’s oil supply is known to pass through the Strait of Hormuz every day.