When asked why they voted
blocking the deal, some senators remarked that the Strait of Hormuz would be threatened if Houthi rebels take over all of Yemen.
But the shipping bottleneck actually separates Iran and an Omani peninsula, not Yemen, which is hundreds of miles south of Oman and borders the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
The misidentification came from Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who brought up the strait as an issue of concern should Iran-friendly Houthis take over Yemen.
Senator McCain asked Senator Corker if that would “Indeed pose a threat to the Straits [sic] of Hormuz, where they are already harassing American naval vessels?” to which Corker responded: “It creates greater instability in a region that already has had tremendous amounts of it. But no question, I mean, it borders the strait and again it puts more of that in Iranian hands.”