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War in West Asia is into its fourth week. In its latest phase, US President Donald Trump has given Iran five days to open the Strait of Hormuz, threatening to otherwise bomb its entire power generation capacity and cripple it. Earlier, he had given 48 hours. Iran has countered by saying it will attack the infrastructure of the Gulf States helping USA, including the desalination plants. Trump has also said that talks are going on but Iran has denied that and said that this is only a ploy to buy time to attack.

So, it is unclear how much longer the war will last. Gulf countries were threatening to attack Iranian assets in retaliation of the attack on their assets. Iran has not backed down in spite of these threats and in spite of the severe beating it has taken. It has clarified that it is attacking those places from where it is being attacked by the US.

Iran seems to have planned well and is continuing to retaliate strategically where it hurts the world economy. It has managed to degrade the defences of the US and Israel so that the few missiles and drones it is launching are getting through. US is sending and/or preparing to send more troops and THAD batteries to the war theatre. The US has accepted that the Iranian regime is resilient and to minimise the global economic impact, it has removed sanctions from Russian oil on high seas. And, recently done the same for Iranian oil. Also, Trump has promised that Israel will not attack Iranian oil assets anymore but there is no guarantee of that.

Israel is acting unilaterally to kill Iranian leaders and attack its oil assets. It started the war suddenly to derail the negotiations between the US and Iran which were almost finalised. It forced the US to join in the war. It wants to keep the war going so as to pummel Iran to dust so that it becomes the predominant and unchallenged power in West Asia. The US President claimed he did not know of the latest attacks on Iran’s South Pars gas field.

President Trump is under pressure from his closest allies to stop the war. He asked them to send ships to the Gulf but they have been reluctant and said this is not their war. But, they do want the war to stop given the severe impact it is having on the world economy. Will President Trump claim victory and retreat, in spite of Israeli pressures? That is what the world leaders not directly involved in the war are hoping........

© The Wire