TheAltWorld US-Iran shipping war resumes
Washington should stop playing with fire — unless it wants to start a Middle East war
Last week, Iranian naval forces detained a US-bound oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman and forced it to dock at an Iranian port. This was retaliation for the earlier seizure by the US of a China-bound Iranian tanker.
A new shipping war is breaking out between Iran and the US in the waters of the Arabian Sea, escalating the prospect of a naval or even aerial confrontation between the two countries.
Iran has zero tolerance for any US or Israeli attempt to threaten its ships or tankers anywhere, especially in its own immediate vicinity. There are many examples that testify to this. In 2019, after British warships detained a Syria-bound Iranian oil tanker in the Strait of Gibraltar, Iran retaliated by seizing two British tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, and only released them after its own tanker was freed. In 2022, when the Greek authorities allowed the US to offload the cargo of an Iranian tanker it had confiscated, Iran responded by seizing two Greek tankers. Again, it did not release them until the Iranian vessel was freed.
The US commits these acts of piracy against Iranian tankers and vessels under the pretext of enforcing the sanctions it imposes on Iran for developing its nuclear programme. It forgets it was the US itself which withdrew from the 2015 nuclear agreement signed with Iran and reneged on implementing any of its provisions. The US may have a short memory, but our memories run longer and deeper.
The US is distraught at its failure to bring Iran to its knees, and even more, so that the sanctions have backfired — with Iran upping its uranium enrichment to unprecedented levels and increasing its oil exports by 250,000 barrels per day to the same levels before US sanctions were imposed.
The US was defeated in the ‘drones war’ over the Gulf when Iranian missiles downed one of its Global Hawks — the jewel in the crown of its drone fleet — at an altitude of 20km after it strayed a few metres into Iranian airspace in 2019. It certainly won’t win this new shipping war which it started and initiated with its seizures and detentions. It will only succeed in making its bases and allies in the region vulnerable to existential threats.
The detention of the American tanker as a rapid Iranian response will change the maritime rules of engagement in the Gulf and Arabian Sea. The vessel won’t be released until the abducted Iranian ship is freed with its cargo fully intact, as happened in Gibraltar and Greek cases.
This strong and resolute Iranian response amounts to a powerful message to the US warning it not to play with fire. It reflects Iran’s confidence in itself and its military capabilities on land, at sea, and in the air. The message is certain to have been received. Any attempt by the US to ignore it would have dire consequences — unless it is actually intent on triggering a second war in the Middle East while sustaining losses in the Ukraine war.
The US’ capacity for stupidity does not need to be demonstrated. Its defeats in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria are ample proof. So nothing can be ruled out.
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