UN Security Council to vote on Strait of Hormuz

[Twiglets1]

The UN Security Council’s vote on a proposal to ensure the safety of ships in the Strait of Hormuz has been rescheduled from Friday to Saturday, according to media reports.

The council’s 15 members are set to vote on a resolution from Bahrain aimed at protecting commercial shipping in the critical waterway, which usually carries about one-fifth of global oil and natural gas supplies.

The Associated Press and Reuters news agencies have reported that a draft resolution includes text authorising countries “to use all defensive means necessary” to protect commercial shipping.

The proposal is considered unlikely to pass, as China, a veto-wielding permanent member of the council, has made it clear that it opposes any resolution that mentions the use of force.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2026/4/2/iran-war-live-trump-to-address-nation-tehran-denies-seeking-ceasefire

You reckon "UN vote" farming ? I would not disagree with that. But I am not sure I would say it is the only reason.

Incidentally, "vote farming" is one of the reasons I think the UN set-up is pretty good. It's not ideal, and the UN is far from perfect, but it does sort of work. Which I think is pretty amazing.

Why do I think " vote farming" works ?

I think if we take the South Pacific Island Nations as an example. The authoritarian PRC is big on collecting UN votes, so it tries to buy influence. And it has been working on this for years. But the wealthy Anzacs counter this. They try to come up with ways to help them, to persuade them away from the PRC. The PRC wants UN votes. The Anzacs don't, but they don't want the PRC getting them. This battle gives the Pacific islanders power they would otherwise not have. And they can use that power to their benefit.

Does that make sense ?

I personally am not keen on reporting. I am not a free speech absolutist though. Of course conditions apply, but my idea of conditions are subtle I suppose. Not like Musks totalitarian version of free speech:-)

So your MN persona is reactionary ?

Fair enough. Same as Trump then. Although he tends to "start it".

Word salad. The UK is not an authoritarian country.

We are firmly in the “democracy” camp.

Next week for the vote. From the CNN feed:

"The UN Security Council is now expected to vote next week on a Bahraini resolution to secure transit passage in the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reported on Friday, citing diplomats.
The vote was initially set for Friday, then rescheduled for Saturday. Several diplomats said the vote was postponed until next week and no new date has been set, according to Reuters.
Bahrain’s UN mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reason for the delay, said the news agency.
The draft resolution, if adopted, would authorize countries to use “all defensive means necessary” to secure transit passage through the Strait of Hormuz. It would authorize naval action in the strait, which has been effectively closed since the start of the war.
The proposed move has reportedly faced resistance from China, Russia and others. It would be “legitimizing the unlawful and indiscriminate use of force, which would inevitably lead to further escalation of the situation and lead to serious consequences,” Reuters reported China’s UN envoy Fu Cong as saying on Thursday."

I don't like the resolution myself. Too much risk of escalation. Iran does have the upper hand and I can't see that changing soon with Trump doing what he is doing.

Japan got a tanker through, and not only are they US allies but they and the PRC are at the lowest diplomatic relations as they have been in decades. And the PRC has been clear that they support Iran.

So how did Japan manage it ?

Word salad ?

And I was talking of authoritarianism. Not democracy. A democracy can be authoritarian.

And always the usual suspects. Multiple threads. As soon as one doesn't go their way a new one is created.

Word salad is when someone strings random words together, leading to an incoherent expression of thought.

What was written was coherent @Twiglets1 . Can you highlight the bits that made you decide the post by @RedTagAlan was 'word salad'? I should then be able to paraphrase them for you.

The UK is not an authoritarian country.
We are firmly in the “democracy” camp.

The complacency in binary thinking like this enables the shift from democracy into authoritarianism. Democracy is faltering worldwide and we have to be aware of the slide in order to combat it.

Recently in the UK we had the case where police unlawfully arrested two parents for their posts on a school Whatsapp group and ended up paying £20k compensation. And was only four days ago that the Police decided to end recording legal but offensive social media posts, as hate crimes.

The UK is indeed a democracy, but we need to be vigilant. We have had Police overreach in recording NCHI for 30 years!

https://www.cfr.org/articles/freedom-houses-annual-report-shows-the-dire-state-of-democracy-worldwide

And yours is to keep going with this stuff pointlessly.

He’s who you follow, stick to his social media posts instead and engage with others.

I was just thinking that about your posts.

Eh??
Show me the timeline for that accusation or it didn't happen.

@Twiglets1I get you. These threads

In any case regardless of other issues you can say what you like on mn within guidelines but it’s only when an org is proscribed will support be deleted.

It’s a pretty good legal system in the U.K. and other places but some won’t like it, as it is very effective.

Japan and Iran have a long-term friendly relationship.

During the Saddam Hussein initiated Wsr against Iran in the 1980s, Japan remained neutral, unlike many other countries who helped fund and supplied weapons to Iraq. Japan remained one of Iran’s biggest trading partners continuing to buy Oil, providing a lifeline to buy essentials to support ordinary Iranians.

Also there's a distinction made between the ordinary people and their political class. Based on a March 2026 Asahi Shimbun poll, 82% of Japanese citizens oppose U.S. military attacks on Iran, reflecting strong public aversion to war and favoring diplomatic, non-interventionist solutions. Thousands in Tokyo have rallied against the attacks,
https://www.asahi.com/sp/ajw/articles/16424410#:~:text=An%20overwhelming%2082%20percent%20of,voters%20agreed%20with%20her%20move.

From a purely selfish POV the Japanese economy is extremely fragile and there's little capacity to symbolically sanction Iran just to appease the stupidity of Trump.

Also on France, Macron's actions make sense. France still has connections with many of their former African colonies, who need fertilizers and other essentials. Macron is trying to secure passage of these essentials to prevent a humanitarian disaster. He did similar when the Russia/Ukraine conflict kicked off.

True. The same few posters on repeat.

It’s the same few posters on repeat who resort to these types of posts.

Quote "During the Saddam Hussein initiated Wsr against Iran in the 1980s, Japan remained neutral, unlike many other countries who helped fund and supplied weapons to Iraq. Japan remained one of Iran’s biggest trading partners continuing to buy Oil, providing a lifeline to buy essentials to support ordinary Iranians."

I never knew that. Thanks for the info.

So based on that, it appears that Iran is not being overly influenced by the PRC, and that they have a long memory. I would say there is near nothing more the PRC would like to see than the Japanese economy collapse.

Yes, your last para' makes sense.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'vote farming' in this instance though.
The French seem to have become more dovish. A wise move imo.

I didn't know this either. Thank you!

True diplomacy is needed now more than ever but so many leaders seem determined to do the very opposite and to therefore escalate an already terrible and precarious situation further.

Vote farming is just where countries "buy" UN votes. See the PRC belt and road thing. It's not often in mainstream news, but is among "China watchers". China for example is trying to get the UN Human Rights stuff changed. And it needs votes. One of the things it wants to change is to add "access to high speed rail" as a Human right. The right to "live peacefully and have a stable Government". Yup. They really do.

Also access to resources and all that, but UN votes are very sought after if one does not have many pals in the world.

Iran has an extremely longgggggg memory. People tend to forget that Iran was occupied during both World War 1 and World War 2 by the allies.

Their first democratically elected leader was removed after an American/UK led coup jn 1953 under operation Ajax, where local Iranian youth were paid to start riots (sound familiar?) and an unpopular British selected Shah was reinstalled.

Due to this Iranians are fiercely independent, Putin revealed that they didn't even sign the mutual agreement with Russia until January this year and even doing that was fiercely debated within Iran. The weapons they use are mostly produced in Iran, this is to avoid the situation like during the Iraq war where due to sanctions they were unable to use their American bought weapons as they needed spare parts. It also reduces the leverage their allies have to pressure them by threatening to withdraw weapons/assistance.

On the PRC, I think you misunderstand them, yes the horrors Japanese occupation inflicted on the Chinese people during WW2 were horrific (comfort women etc.) and are not forgotten.

However hatred/revenge does not drive their foreign policy. A strong prosperous Japan that can buy Chinese products (ironically things like TVs that Japan used to be famous for) and is also questioning the utility of having American bases in Japan is far more important in the long run.

One of the Colonel's that I listen to said that a mistake we make in the West when thinking about our "adversaries" is that we attribute behaviour to them that we would do. Example: Logically now would be the best time for XI to "take back" Taiwan as that's what we would do.

I agree with others on @BelleHathor's post. It's informative posts like these that enable genuine debate. Both Japan and South Korea face challenging economic conditions directly linked to the war in Iran, not least being the falling value of their respective currencies.
Admist all the pro Trump/US/Israel posturing, we must never forget the plight of ordinary people who are suffering in a war that they didn't start, and don't want.

re UN vote farming, I think of it as being like Fifa, but not as overtly as using bungs in briefcases.

The Economist Democracy Index divides countries into full democracies, flawed democracies, hybrid regimes and authoritarian regimes.

Examples of full democracies: Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Spain, Greece, Ireland and the UK.

Examples of flawed democracies: India, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Chile, Israel, Poland, France, Italy, Hungary, Argentina, South Africa and the US.

Examples of hybrid regimes: Romania, Zambia, Peru, Senegal, Mexico, Morocco, Tunisia, Ukraine, Turkey, Bangladesh and Hong Kong.

Examples of authoritarian regimes: Lebanon, Algeria, Palestine, Rwanda, Qatar, UAE, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Iraq, Egypt, China, Russia, Iran, Syria & Afghanistan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index

One of the Colonel's that I listen to said that a mistake we make in the West when thinking about our "adversaries" is that we attribute behaviour to them that we would do. Example: Logically now would be the best time for XI to "take back" Taiwan as that's what we would do.

I'm interested in Chinese culture and have to constantly remind friends that they don't think like us. I once mentioned 30 year business planning to a Chinese colleague who replied, it's more like 100 years. #byd

Thanks for this