From Iran Focus:

By Lin Noueihed

ImageKHASAB, Oman, May 12 (Reuters) – Smugglers pile boxes high on their speedboats, covering them with tarpaulin before zipping off into the sunset on the short but dangerous journey across the strategic Strait of Hormuz from Oman to Iran.

They return in the early morning, their empty fibreglass boats ready to pick up more cargo at the small Gulf port of Khasab, in Oman’s isolated northern peninsula of Musandam.

Trade with Iran is as ancient as the settlements overlooking the Strait of Hormuz, gateway for a third of the world’s oil shipments. In 2005, Iran’s police chief said some $6 billion worth of goods such as computer parts, tea or cigarettes were smuggled into the country each year from the Gulf.

Now, tensions between the United States and the Islamic Republic have added new dangers to the age-old journey across the Strait of Hormuz.

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