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The high stakes standoff between Iran and the U.S. over the Strait of Hormuz, the passageway for one-fifth of the world's oil, was inflamed Thursday when Iran's navy claimed to have recorded video of a U.S. aircraft carrier entering the Port of Oman. The Associated Press says the announcement "is an indication Iran is seeking to cast its navy as having a powerful role in the region's waters" and it comes on the same day the deputy chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Hossein Salami rejected U.S. claims that it could prevent Iran from closing the strait. "If they (the West) impose sanctions on Iran's oil exports, then even one drop of oil cannot flow from the Strait of Hormuz," Salami said on state TV, according to Haaretz. On Wednesday, the U.S. Fifth Fleet said it would not tolerate any disruption of the strait. If push comes to shove, what would a military confrontation in the strait look like?

First, there are a number of reasons why blocking the strait would not be in Iran's interest. As The Daily Beast's Michael Addler notes, "Closing the Strait of Hormuz would be a catastrophe for Iran itself, as all its export oil ships through the strait." At the same time, the price of oil would skyrocket, angering the international community and further isolate Iran. However, as Time's Mark Thompson points out, while closing the strait would jeopardize Iran's oil exports that transit the strait, "if the next round of sanctions keeps Iranian oil off the world market, that brake on Iranian military action will be gone." In that light, a confrontation becomes more plausible. As Vali Naser, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, writes "War between the U.S. and Iran may very well start, not if and when Washington decides to strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, but because sanctions designed as the alternative to military action end up hastening its advent." So what would happen?