Link of Article: https://apnews.com/article/mideast-iran-kharg-island-us-4972c370161bccbaf67f8de131095158
The U.S. confirmed strikes on three Iranian oil tankers. They said that Iran fired on American warships, which is why the U.S. attacked. This came after around a month of relatively no direct combat on the Iranian front. The U.S. says that the oil tankers were funneling money to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard whilst the Iran state media says that they hit a vessel near Kharg, an island that is one of Iran’s main export hubs. Other developments are the U.S. ambassador to Israel declaring that Israeli settlers in the West Bank, were committing “acts of terror”. These actions, such as burning cars, torching holy places like mosques, and seizing property, were labeled by the ambassador as terrorism. More developments include a drone strike on Israeli forces, a strike on Lebanon killing 3, Houthi rebels saying Yemen killed people in a new conflict, and finally Egypt’s foreign minister negotiating for shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
The scattered stories, all woven together by instability and turmoil in the Middle East. All of these individual events are connected, not separate. The tanker strikes and the Houthi outrage encouraged Egyptian negotiation for safe passage to avoid shipping dangers and the economic pressure caused by the U.S. – Iran War. The ambassador to Israel stating that the West Bank settlers are “terrorists”, is not in isolation, it is a result of the ongoing acts of violence by the Israeli settlers, and what many consider an ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population from Gaza and the West Bank. The ambassador also goes against expectations because with the U.S. being a close Israeli ally, it defies the Israeli narrative, which gives tremendous weight to the statement of the “acts of terror” committed by Israeli, West Bank settlers.
The intertwined chaos of the Middle East is a prime example of asymmetric warfare, with Iran utilizing non traditional methods to bleed the U.S. economy so that the U.S. loses support for the war. This shows the core concepts through power dynamics: Iran isn’t forced to fight the U.S. on equal footing, or even meet them at all. Instead, at least so far, they’ve opted to let the chaos of the Middle East drag the U.S. in, with the Houthis and Hezbollah, as well as other militant groups, providing turmoil in the region, making globalised nations hurt the most from the attacks on trade and the bottleneck on shipments from blockades and conflict in the region. This article touches on sovereignty too because Iran encroaches on international waters, that being the Strait or Hormuz, and Israel is encroaching on Palestine. The ambassador calling the settlers “terrorists” delegitimizes the movement and Egypts push for negotiations shows how some nations push for peace and aim to serve as intermediaries.