Since the start of the Middle East conflict with Israeli and US strikes on Iran on 28 February, concerns have been growing over rising oil and commodity prices. At the centre of it lies the Strait of Hormuz – one of the world’s most critical maritime chokepoints – which carries around a quarter of global seaborne oil, along with significant volumes of liquefied natural gas and fertilisers, according to a recent UN report. To better understand the implications of this disruption, and the findings of the report published on 10 March, UN News spoke to Frida Youssef, Chief of Section for Economic Affairs at UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Ms. Youssef explained that the traffic in the Strait where the Persian Gulf narrows has fallen from around 130 ships a day before the crisis to single digits in early March, a decline of more than 95 per cent.…