In the waters threading the world's energy trade, a second Qatari LNG tanker has been struck by Iranian fire within a month, while twenty-two Chinese-linked vessels passed through the same contested strait without incident. The pattern emerging across the Red Sea, Arabian Gulf, and now the eastern Mediterranean is not simply one of violence, but of selective violence — a maritime order being rewritten in real time, where flag and affiliation appear to determine safe passage more than any treaty or coalition. Saudi Arabia has summoned fourteen nations to defend these lanes, but the deeper quest