Pro Tip: Know your geography before going into a debate on foreign policy.
In last night's debate, Romney explained the importance of Syria as a lever with Iran:
Secondly, Syria's an opportunity for us because Syria plays an important role in the Middle East, particularly right now. Syria is Iran's only ally in the Arab world. It's their route to the sea. ...
Knowing about the Strait of Hormuz and the threat we all went through recently, that gave me license to launch a few Tweets. But the campaign defended this point to the Washington Post in April (ht Huffington Post)...
This is the explanation provided by the Romney campaign: "It is generally recognized that Syria offers Iran strategic basing/staging access to the Mediterranean as well as to terrorist proxies in the Levant. This is a large reason why Iran invests so much in Syria."
A few clicks through Wikipedia take you to Kharq Island, which belongs to Iran, and this: "As of 2012, the Kharg oil terminal is handling about 98% of Iran's crude exports." The citation takes you here.
So, no. Iran is not land-locked, and it doesn't use Syria to get its oil out, and Syria is less important to Romney Iran than Romney would have you believe.
(I won't have much more to say about the debate, only saw the first half.)
