NewsBeat
Iran war live: Revolutionary Guard threatens US with ‘war beyond the region’
The Foreign Secretary has warned that Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz could result in tens of millions going hungry as she told an aid summit of the risk of “sleepwalking into a global food crisis”.
Yvette Cooper told an aid conference in London that the global south was paying the biggest price as the global trade of fertiliser and heating oil are largely blocked.
Markets are already pricing in weaker harvests and the World Food Programme has estimated that 45 million people could fall into acute food insecurity if the conflict does not end by the middle of the year.
The Foreign Secretary said: “We meet against the backdrop of the Hormuz crisis, a strait of water through which 90 ships a day used to pass, but for the last three months it’s been more like five.
“Heating oil for Asia – stuck in the Strait, fertilisers for Africa – stuck in the strait, 20,000 seafarers, 800 ships – just stuck in the strait.
“The global economy is being held hostage, and the global south is paying the biggest price.”
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