While We Were Sleeping….

Good morning, Asia. While you were sleeping, one of our most-read stories reported that dozens of ships have managed to circumvent the blockade since it began — despite Donald Trump declaring it a ‘tremendous success’. https://t.co/TI52fxy7VQ pic.twitter.com/BkOeMke1pR

— Financial Times (@FT) April 22, 2026

How can dozens of ships defeat the US Blockade, as the FT repost below says is happening?

The map shows how a tanker can travel from Kharg Island to Mumbai while remaining within the territorial waters of Pakistan and India.

The US Blockade Rules and UNCLOS (UN Law of the Sea)… https://t.co/iDGHoQmqsu pic.twitter.com/2KUBorMnx8

— Jim Bianco (@biancoresearch) April 22, 2026

How can dozens of ships defeat the US Blockade, as the FT repost below says is happening?

The map shows how a tanker can travel from Kharg Island to Mumbai while remaining within the territorial waters of Pakistan and India.

The US Blockade Rules and UNCLOS (UN Law of the Sea) give ships the right of innocent passage through a coastal state’s territorial sea, and it is the coastal state that will regulate that passage. waters 

Once in Pakistani or Indian waters, they can transfer their cargo or continue without entering international waters.

The secret is, the blockade only interdicts ships moving from Iranian territorial waters into Pakistani territorial waters. Which, apparently, is not 100% effective.

Follow-up ...

Here is the US blockade. Run this line into Pakistani territorial waters (blue highlight), and the US will not enter to interdict. You can go up to the red line in the green part without incident.@mercoglianos @johnkonrad pic.twitter.com/35cMMK1Ymt

— Jim Bianco (@biancoresearch) April 23, 2026

Trump doesn’t understand this, so he tells himself (and us) that Iran is hermetically sealed and is starving to death. He thinks Iran is losing “$500 million a day.”

Trump threatens Iran with potentially "blowing up the rest of their Country, their leaders included!" pic.twitter.com/oxG6TubLXw

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 22, 2026

But he also thinks he saved 8 Iranian women who may not even exist:

There seems to be a dispute on this. pic.twitter.com/rxehEIfhM4

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 22, 2026

Iran seems to be better informed than Trump is:

The key to success here was that he identified and targeted the most gullible group of people on planet earth - American MAGA. pic.twitter.com/Zvv1IfnOLq

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 22, 2026

Then again, the POTUS gets his information from the Intertoobs.

It’s not really that the blockade has to be perfect. It’s that Trump thinks it is. He thinks it’s one more way he’s “winning” this war. The problem is not the reality. The problem is his stupidity.