Donald Trump described the American naval presence against Iranian ports with exactly what it is - without accepting the legal weight of those words. „We are like pirates. A little like pirates, but we are not playing." He said it about the seizure of an Iranian ship a few days earlier. „We took the ship, we took the cargo, we took the oil. And this is a very profitable business."

The phrase „very profitable business" doesn't come on its own. It comes from a president who looks at a military operation as an investment. When a state claims for itself that it is the same as pirates - that is a historic precedent. Not in the sense of behaviour, but in the sense of admission. Never before has a US president boasted of being a „pirate" as an instrument of state policy. Until 2026.

Context: in the past few weeks American forces have seized several Iranian ships leaving Iranian ports. In addition, they have seized sanctioned container ships and Iranian tankers in Asian waters. Since the beginning of the conflict, Iran has blocked many ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz - except its own. Now the US is doing the same - but in a „profitable" style.

What follows from this. First, maritime law is clear. The seizure of someone else's commercial ship without an official declaration of war is an act of piracy - the term is not metaphorical, it is legal. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) prohibits such actions except in the case of a formally declared war or sanctions approved by the Security Council. There is neither one nor the other. There is only interest.

For the Balkans, and more broadly for countries that depend on oil transit through Hormuz, this is not just semantics. About 20% of global oil and natural gas shipments pass through Hormuz. Closures or problems in this strait automatically push up petrol and heating prices in the Balkans. When the president of the largest world economy declares that his navy „is pirate", this crisis does not end - it deepens progressively.

And the Balkans, watching this from a distance, should pay attention to one detail. When a state declares that it is a „pirate", it opens the door for other states to do the same. China can seize a ship in the Pacific. Russia can seize a ship in the Baltic. And no one will be able to say that it is illegal - because the precedent is already set. By Washington.