Without insurance, there are no ships to sail. That is why, at number 1 Lime Street, in the heart of the City of London, Donald Trump's words have a relative impact. He can say one thing or the opposite. Either that the war will end in "the next two or three weeks", after sending Iran "to the Stone Age, where it belongs." Or that the navy's aircraft carriers will protect the passage of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. Or even more: that it will be the Western allies who will have to do it, either by warlike or diplomatic means, such as those discussed on Thursday by the thirty-five countries that, with the United Kingdom as host, met virtually to analyze the alternatives to the blockade of oil flow in the Persian Gulf.

While the U.S. Navy pursued an old, dilapidated oil tanker from Venezuela into the Atlantic in recent days, the fugitive vessel kept changing its identity. Formerly known as Beautiful 1The tanker was renamed as MarineraIt no longer claimed to be from Guyana. Its new flag, hastily painted on the hull by the same crew, was the Russian tricolor.