Tension grows in the Gulf
U.S. President Donald Trump’s mania to attack anything he threatens his government’s interests is bringing the world to the brink of a war with serious consequences in the Persian Gulf region, where one-fifth of the world’s oil is produced.
The head of the White House is obsessed with the idea of completely destroying the Islamic Republic of Iran, regardless of what will happen if a global conflict breaks out.
Years of political and diplomatic efforts allowed in 2015 the signing of a nuclear agreement between Tehran and the main Western powers that distanced the spectre of atomic war and it gave a breath to the world, only so that last year Trump threw all this work into the garbage can by unilaterally withdrawing from that pact.
Although Iran maintained a moderate position and achieved a precarious balance with the support of the European Union, the abusive sanctions imposed by Washington, including the prohibition of the Persian country from selling its oil to whomever it wants, as a sovereign state that is a full member of the international community, are exhausting patience and bringing closer the thin red line that separates peace from war.
To top it all, the Pentagon deployed significant means of war in the Gulf, which can only be interpreted as a provocation.
It was in this tense climate that a dark incident occurred in the Oman Sea off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, where four oil tankers were damaged by explosions of unknown origin.
The United States immediately and without offering any evidence accused Iran of the attack, a version that was irresponsibly reproduced by the large Western information consortiums, which biasedly failed to mention Tehran’s forceful denials.
While the case did not go any further, it was a clear demonstration of how a spark, accidental or provoked, can unleash war at any time.
One factor of moderation has been the attitude of the European Union which has refused to follow the course of US aggressions and declared its unrestricted support for the 2015 agreement with Iran.
Even Spain decided to withdraw a frigate accompanying the US combat fleet in the Persian Gulf, which is headed by the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, plus B-52 bombers, a ship with amphibious vehicles and a battery of Patriot anti-missile rockets, enough material to start a war.
The calls of the world at this time are aimed at preventing Trump, who has no statesmanship at all, from crossing the point of no return.
It would be lamentable innocence to believe that a conflict at a point so far from these shores would no longer have consequences for our lives. Let us remember the English poet John Donne who already in the seventeenth century warned us that no man is an island in itself, that the death of anyone affects us because we are united with all humanity. The bells, my friends, also ring for us.
(Taken from RHC in Spanish)
Written by Radio Grito de Baire
