After instigating the US’ war on Iran, Israel smartly manoeuvred itself out of the Persian Gulf theatre of war, leaving the US alone to suffer the ravages of this rather unwarranted, extravagant, senseless military (mis)adventure. Far from being brought to an acceptable closure, this Gulf War seems to be expanding, menacingly. A stop-start war has already been on between the US and Iran in the Persian Gulf-Hormuz Straits region since February 2026. Now the Red Sea-Bab-el Mandab front has also been activated by the Iran-backed Houthis. To compound matters even further, some Iraq-based pro-Iran militias too have joined the fray by attacking the East-West oil pipeline in northern Saudi Arabia. Most critically, the holy city of Makkah has been threatened by a drone attack. Could both these attacks possibly be false flag operations (by hostile external powers?) aimed at curtailing Saudi exports of oil, intensifying global oil shortages, escalating the Saudi-Houthi conflict, firing up the sentiments of the Muslim World and creating conditions for Pakistan and Turkiye to be sucked into the battle under the Makkah Defence Alliance (MDA) protocols? Is it a deep strategic manoeuvre to pitch Muslim against Muslim again - (Iraq-Iran war, 1980-88)? KSA is thus under a multidimensional assault and on the horns of a serious strategic and geoeconomics dilemma. Iran apparently has the initiative, escalation control and is determining the limits, pace and dynamics of the war. The US appears reduced to just reinforcing failure in all dimensions - military, economic, diplomatic,........

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