By Uzma Ehtasham
Every word uttered by the president of a country that styles itself as the world’s sole superpower demands serious attention. A single message from him can send the price of oil per barrel rocketing toward the heavens – and, once there, send it crashing back down to earth with a deafening thud. Journalists in Pakistan, however, are compelled to take his spontaneous pronouncements even more gravely, for Iran is our neighbor. We share a border stretching nine hundred kilometers. Moreover, nearly eighty per cent of the oil and gas available to us arrives via the Strait of Hormuz, which lies along Iran’s coastline, connecting us to various Gulf states. For centuries, this waterway remained open to all for maritime trade. Yet, following a war imposed on Iran by America and Israel, the strait has been under Iran’s complete control for the past seven weeks.
Without the permission of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, you cannot move a single tanker laden with oil or gas through that passage. Whispers spreading through global markets claim the Guard now demands advance payment – a tax, if you will – for granting passage through the strait. If a company seeking to move its vessels lacks the means or courage to pay in US dollars, this “tribute” can also be settled in Chinese currency. And if payment in American, European or Chinese cash proves impossible, then “permission” can be bought with cryptocurrency.
What exactly is cryptocurrency? To be honest, I have yet to fathom an answer to that question. Who issues this currency? The name of that institution or government remains a mystery to me. Suppose I have a hundred thousand rupees in spare cash – where would I go, how much cryptocurrency could I buy and how would I keep it safe? I am utterly ignorant of the answers to these basic questions. Despite my own lack of knowledge, I have been hearing for many months that a currency called “crypto” does indeed exist. It has no paper notes, only “coins”. I have no idea how these coins are minted, or in which factory – which mint – they are produced.
Donald Trump, however, after taking the oath of office as US president on 20 January 2025, decided that the American state and its banks would provide a guarantee for cryptocurrency. The decision was made to encourage the crypto trade under state supervision and patronage. I confess I hesitate – troubled as I am by allegations of financial corruption swirling around the Trump family – yet I humbly reflect that a favored son of President Trump, in partnership with the son of his youthful friend Steve Witkoff, has set up a cryptocurrency company. Perhaps its real purpose is to reassure people that crypto is not some shady, underground racket. You are meant to invest in it without fear. As the saying goes, when an elephant walks, every creature follows in its footsteps. Once America legitimized the crypto business, Pakistan too followed suit, regularizing cryptocurrency under state rules and regulations. Our own brilliant and resourceful young man, Bilal bin Saqib, is introducing this currency and enabling Pakistan to benefit from a most modern financial system.
However, this story began with the Strait of Hormuz. According to market rumors, the Revolutionary Guard now accepts payment in cryptocurrency for granting passage through the strait. However, a deceit recently occurred involving two oil tankers. They were trying to carry oil from the United Arab Emirates to the Indian state of Kerala, passing through the Strait of Hormuz. An Indian rogue posed as a representative of the Revolutionary Guard and struck a “deal” with them. He collected payment in crypto and promptly vanished. But when the tankers began to enter the strait, the Guard examined the receipts and transit permits held by their captains and declared them fraudulent. The vessels were surrounded and turned back. So even the use of cryptocurrency appears to make navigating oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz no easier.
America, which claims to be the world’s only superpower, lacks the strength to force open the strait. To mask its own humiliation, it now seeks to blockade ships sailing to and from Iranian ports. Yet this American blockade of vessels travelling from the strait and Iranian ports into the Indian Ocean is beginning to deprive hundreds of millions of people – from Pakistan to Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines – of the oil and gas they need for daily life. Neither Iran nor America is willing to accept the reality that neither side can win this war decisively. It would be far better to sit at the negotiating table, to give something and take something, and to rescue tens of millions of people in countless countries like Pakistan from the torment of uncertainty.
Even in this season of uncertainty, President Trump, rising each morning by American time, delivers messages via live telephone calls to video and television correspondents – messages that keep us suspended for hours between hope and fear. On Wednesday evening, in vague words, he told a New York Post correspondent who has been stationed in Islamabad for several days that a second round of talks aimed at finding lasting peace between Iran and America might begin by Friday. I am writing this column on Thursday morning in Pakistan. As far as I can see, there is no prospect of talks anywhere on the horizon. All roads leading to Islamabad’s Red Zone, however, remain closed to ordinary citizens. They have been “secured” with rolls of barbed wire. The disruption to daily life in the busiest areas of Islamabad is becoming unbearable.
(The writer is a public health professional, journalist, and possesses expertise in health communication, having keen interest in national and international affairs, can be reached at uzma@metro-morning.com)
