Iran seizes two container ships near Strait of Hormuz amid escalating maritime tensions

the whole west, including murika rely on imports, so the issue is world wide, not isolated to China or Europe only - I mean imports of everything, food, fertilizer, technology, steel, furniture, everything needs oil and gas or its by-products to function - I would argue Asia is less hit than Europe and murika because both parties have globalized their economy and rely mostly on imports... but this is the card Iran have, if its blockaded, its gonna blockade everything and it can escalate with bab-el-mandeb, making it very costly for murika to keep this going, let alone escalate - Iran can never defeat murika in symmetric war, it neither can destroy murikan infrastructure - but it can hurt it economically.

I am pretty sure China and Russia are behind this plan, although all of them act independently - China have 2 billion barrels in its reserve, it also receive oil from Russia and central Asian countries - its reserves can last 2 years aprox - China is not the one hurt most, I think Europe is - But Europe is part of the war against Iran and this is the price to pay - Obviously this war is creating tensions between murika and Europe and starting uncomfortable conversations - first Russia and now Iran, Europe is getting fucked everytime murika decide to run its death and destruction modus.

Azerbaijan is delicate situation, because you have millions of Iranian Azerbaijanis - its not a front Iran benefit from opening - also the turks might involve themselves and it becomes messy... but aliyev will receive his punishment for the various plots he have conducted against Iran and Russia, when the time comes - right now the caspian sea is closed to outsiders and this might be the strategy Iran and Russia want to keep intact - because who knows what happens if you get regime change in Azerbaijan, if you get a Euro centric government suddenly OTAN might enter, you also have turkey who dream of expanding its ottoman foot-print - it can get really messy! Azerbaijan is run the same way as the gulf monarchies are run, the difference is gulf monarchies have imported their citizens, while aliyev have indigenous citizens his family rules over!

but the point is, Iran is not targeting random ships, there is a coherent strategy behind it!