As I remember it, The Suez Canal is not wide enough for both northbound and southbound traffic at the same time.
That may be, but might they pass in the Red Sea. It should be wide enough for friendly two way traffic, but is narrow enough that passing ships with modern weapons and evil intentions would give minimal warning before doing real damage. Iran wouldn’t win such an encounter, but they could give us a bloody nose and might be nuts enough to attempt it. We should be suitably alert or at least ready to go public with any orders to the contrary.
The Bitter Lake is in the middle...used for transit of ships in both directions....it was here that a couple of freighters were sunk during the 6 day war.