Israel-Iran conflict likely to cause global shipping and oil trade disruptions
The Middle East is on the brink of all out war as the conflict threatens to spill over into other countries.
Picture: Eyad BABA/AFP
Stephen Grootes speaks to Timothy Walker, maritime senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria.
Listen to the interview in the audio player below.
Israel and Iran continue to fire missiles at each other, as the conflict intensifies and escalates.
Israel attacked Iran in the early hours of Friday morning, launching airstrikes on Iranian military targets including its nuclear facilities.
Iran responded less than 24 hours after the attacks, launching missiles and drones at Israel.
Both sides have reported hundreds of casualties since the conflict initially broke out.
The war has had a impact outside of the Middle East as well, with global trade, particularly shipping through the the Strait of Hormuz heavily impacted as a result.
The Strait of Hormuz is a small, and only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, serving as a vital shipping route in global trade.
Speaking to Stephen Grootes on The Money Show, Timothy Walker, maritime senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria says shipping in that region has become extremely risky at the moment.
"...shipping going through that area at the moment...the risk of hitting a mine, an oil spill would obviously be tremendously environmentally destructive."
- Timothy Walker, maritime senior researcher - Institute for Security Studies
"The are some signs, and some signaling that extra precautions are going to be taken...there is a general sense that the measures that could be taken, the activation of proxies, the seizure of vessels by Iran, that is another particular matter which could be a problem..."
- Timothy Walker, maritime senior researcher - Institute for Security Studies
"When we talk about choke points of the world, where shipping or anything can be disrupted, the Strait of Hormuz really is the chock point. It wouldn't just be affecting people like the U.S with an interest in oil and freedom of navigation, but it would affect Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait and UAE..."
- Timothy Walker, maritime senior researcher - Institute for Security Studies
Scroll to the top of the article to listen to the full interview.