(JNS) The International Energy Agency warned on Friday that the Iran war had set off “the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market.” Reports predict a global energy crisis. Alongside these forecasts, the Trump administration has been criticized for underestimating the war’s impact on oil supply.
Neither the doomsday scenarios nor the White House critics are correct, said Elai Rettig, assistant professor in the Department of Political Studies at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, and a senior researcher at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA Center), who specializes in energy policy.
The Trump administration is doing an excellent job keeping oil prices in check, and was fully aware that Iran would try to close the Strait of Hormuz, a key chokepoint through which transits 20% of the world’s oil supply, he said.
“The headlines allude to this idea that the Trump administration was completely caught off guard; that it didn’t know the Strait of Hormuz was going to be closed. That doesn’t make any sense,” Rettig told JNS. “Every war simulation I’ve ever...
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