Fishermen off Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, near the Strait of Hormuz, May 30, 2012. File photo: Kamran Jebreili / AP ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – US troop deployments to the Middle East could provoke Iran to blockade the strategic Strait of Hormuz, causing chaos for global oil markets, Iraq’s oil minister warned Saturday. US President Donald Trump announced on Friday he had approved the deployment of another 1,500 troops and a dozen more fighter jets as a “protective” measure. Speaking to Iraq’s Al-Sumaria news agency, Iraqi oil minister Thamer Ghadhban said the closure of the Strait would have a “big impact on Iraq and other countries that export oil using Hormuz to the world market”. He reassured viewers there are “precautionary measures” in place to make sure Iraq does not suffer fuel shortages in the event of the Strait being blocked. Iraq has “strategic reserves of very large amounts of […]