The US-Israel Combine’s wanton assault on Iran has now degenerated and petered out into a pathetic stalemate. Iran has manoeuvred superbly to shift the focus of the war away from a potential regime change and its nuclear programme to the Straits of Hormuz, literally from mainland Iran to the world’s energy markets! The US-Israel Combine now stands hopelessly fixed, rather transfixed and trapped, in the Straits of Hormuz, with no mutually acceptable closure to the war in sight!

The Gulf Arab states have learnt a harsh lesson in the cruel, unforgiving twists, turns and quirks of Realpolitik. The US preferred to secure and defend Israel rather than them during the war and thus lost all credibility as a reliable ally, net stabiliser and net security provider. Furthermore, Iran has brutally exposed the limits of US power and war stamina to fight a prolonged conflict on its own. It has compelled it to shift its strategy yet again from “overwhelming military bludgeoning to crippling economic coercion”. However, Iran seems to have the economic leverage in this conflict, with its de facto control over shipping through the Hormuz Straits and Bab el Mandab. Thus, the US’ reputation, status and stature as a global leader, world power and, by implication, an unequivocal Asian and ME hegemon, have all been severely tarnished. Realistically, it has lost its lofty, domineering perch in ME geopolitics and left a gaping power and strategic vacuum in its wake.

The US military had the declared intent of maintaining multidimensional and multidomain capacities to........

© The Nation