Report: 137 Countries Back Draft UN Resolution on Strait of Hormuz

A draft United Nations resolution on the Strait of Hormuz has the backing of 137 countries, according to a Middle East Eye live-blog report filed in the early hours of 21 May. The figure, if confirmed, would represent more than two-thirds of the UN General Assembly’s 193 member states and signal one of the broadest diplomatic responses yet to the rolling Iran-US confrontation. The UN press desk has not independently confirmed the sign-on number, and Middle East Eye’s report is the sole primary source at the time of writing.

The draft lands hours after Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority published map coordinates for a controlled maritime zone requiring transit authorisation through the chokepoint that carries roughly a fifth of all seaborne oil. Whatever the resolution’s final operative text, it now arrives in a security and market environment already being reshaped by Tehran’s unilateral move, by US Marines boarding an Iranian-flagged tanker in the Gulf of Oman, and by a war-powers debate playing out in the US Congress.

What is in the draft — and what is not

Middle East Eye’s report establishes the headline number — 137 countries — but does not detail the resolution’s sponsors or its exact operative paragraphs. Resolutions of this scale at the UN typically affirm freedom of navigation under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, call on parties to refrain from actions that endanger commercial shipping, and request the Secretary-General to report back on implementation. Whether this draft goes further — naming Iran’s authorisation zone, naming the US blockade, or proposing a monitoring mechanism — is not in the public record yet.

Expect the text and the sponsor list to be refined and made public in the coming days. Until then, the operative facts are the count and the timing.

The diplomatic line-up

Iran’s foreign ministry, speaking through state media, has shifted in the last 24 hours to language emphasising diplomacy over escalation. Per Al Jazeera’s live blog, Tehran said it would not surrender to US demands but that “diplomacy is wiser than war.” That framing dovetails with a UN resolution it can point to as international cover, even if Iran is not formally a sponsor.

The United States is, on a parallel track, negotiating directly with Tehran. President Trump has described those bilateral talks as being in their “final stages.” A UN resolution that explicitly invokes freedom-of-navigation principles is neither helpful nor fatal to that bilateral process; what it does is set a multilateral baseline against which any US-Iran deal will be measured.

The friction point is Israel. Middle East Eye reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is frustrated by the US-Iran track. A UN resolution backed by 137 countries narrows the political space for any party — including Israel — that might prefer the confrontation continue. That is, in effect, the resolution’s diplomatic function regardless of its enforcement teeth.

Domestic US politics

The resolution lands as the domestic US political consensus around the war is visibly cracking. Politico reports that Republican members of Congress are beginning to sour on the Trump administration’s Iran posture, and a Senate war-powers resolution cleared a procedural hurdle earlier this week. Internal Republican fissures, highlighted by Rep. Thomas Massie and a small bloc of allies, make the administration’s room to manoeuvre at the UN smaller, not larger.

A US delegation that vetoes — or works to weaken — a 137-country resolution on a freedom-of-navigation principle the US has spent decades championing creates a politically expensive moment at home. That is the calculation the State Department will be running tonight.

Markets, energy, and the wider thread

The resolution’s framing matters for energy markets because Hormuz is the variable that prices everything else. The US is simultaneously pushing for greater energy exports to India to backfill the Iranian crude that has been removed from the global pool. Middle East Eye reports the Iranian stock market reopened after a nearly three-month shutdown — Tehran’s signal that its internal financial system can keep functioning. And the Strategic Petroleum Reserve buffer is thinning, according to Standard Chartered.

Each of those threads is a separate negotiation. The UN resolution is the one that ties them together into a single multilateral frame.

What to watch

The procedural question is when the draft moves to a vote in the General Assembly, and whether any UN Security Council action follows. UNGA resolutions are non-binding but politically heavy; UNSC action requires unanimous (or non-veto) agreement from the five permanent members and is therefore the harder lift. The US holds a UNSC veto. The UK holds a UNSC veto. Either capital could weaken the language, delay the timeline, or block a Security Council follow-on entirely — but doing so against a 137-country baseline carries diplomatic costs that will be felt in capitals far from Tehran or Washington.

Also watch the named sponsors. A resolution carried by non-aligned states, by major energy importers, or by Gulf neighbours each tells a different story about who feels exposed and who is willing to spend political capital to constrain the cycle.

Caveat

The 137-country figure is, at present, sourced to a single outlet’s reporting. Expect refinement as named sponsors and the resolution’s exact operative paragraphs become public. We will update this article when the UN press desk or the resolution’s sponsors confirm the count and release the text.