Iran's Threats to Gulf Navigation Ratchet up Tensions with the US
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Issue 164, UK £2 www.thearabweekly.com Year 4 July 8, 2018 EU €2.50 Erdogan’s Interview challenges in the Talking to Mohamed Benaissa, region and beyond founder of Morocco’s Page 15 Asilah Mousem Page 23 Iran’s threats to Gulf navigation ratchet up tensions with the US ► The cut-off of Iranian imports, if enforced, would greatly stiffen US efforts to cripple the Tehran regime’s expansionist ambitions in the Middle East. Ed Blanche The Bahrain-based US Navy’s 5th Fleet is without its usual aircraft car- rier battle group. The USS Theodore Beirut Roosevelt left the region in May and has not been replaced. However, the ran, increasingly cornered by US USS Harry S. Truman is in the Medi- President Donald Trump’s diplo- terranean and could be sent to the matic offensive to bring it to its Gulf to boost US naval power for any I knees, is threatening to cut off confrontation with Iran. energy exports through the Arabian The amphibious warship USS Iwo Gulf if economic sanctions are reim- Jima, carrying attack helicopters posed. and a US Marine Corps force, arrived The US State Department an- in the Gulf in early June to reinforce nounced that countries buying the 5th Fleet. Iranian oil must cut off all imports by The Tehran regime has threatened November 4 or face “financial meas- to close Hormuz several times in re- ures” — with no exceptions among cent years, although it has never in- US allies. dicated how it would do that. It has However, officials from all nuclear the capability to mine the 280km Tough talk. Director of Policy Planning Brian Hook speaks to the media about Iran at the US agreement signatories — except the waterway, as it did amid naval Department of State, on June 2. (AFP) United States — on July 6 said they clashes with the US Navy during the were committed to “the continua- 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, when both That has alarmed US allies such what they are saying when they say protests, which have been curtailed tion of Iran’s export of oil and gas” states attacked tankers in the Gulf. as Britain, Germany and France, Iran will not be allowed to export by heavy-handed security forces. with a series of initiatives “aimed at Iran’s navy is no match for the which, along with China and Russia, even a single drop of oil,” Rohani de- An outbreak of mass protests in preserving the nuclear deal, which is Americans’ overwhelming firepow- also signed the pact to ease interna- clared. “All right — if you can do such December and January resulted in a in the security interest of all.” Their er but it has a substantial arsenal of tional sanctions against Iran in re- a thing, do it and see the result!” major crackdown and demands for agreement does not affect the calen- anti-ship missiles in coastal batter- turn for it curtailing its contentious He declined to elaborate but Iran’s action by Rohani’s reformist govern- dar of the US announced sanctions or ies on the eastern Iranian shore of nuclear programme. Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ment to ease the burden on Iran’s the escalating showdown between the Gulf, including Hormuz. The resulting standoff, echoing warned on July 4 it would block 80 million population but most ana- Tehran and Washington. Iran’s threats in the face of previous confrontations in the Gulf, Hormuz if Iran’s crude oil sales are lysts agree an economic recession is The cut-off of Iranian imports, if Trump’s actions have sharply inten- could seriously reduce global oil and halted. inevitable. enforced, would greatly stiffen US ef- sified tensions in the Middle East at gas supplies. Iran exported 1.9 mil- The combined loss of oil exports Iran has much experience in cop- forts to cripple the Tehran regime’s a critical juncture as Tehran builds lion barrels per day (bpd) in the first would have a severe global effect ing with international sanctions and expansionist ambitions in the Middle up its military forces in south-west- quarter of the year. and analysts say a prolonged stop- dramatic fluctuations in its oil earn- East through an economic blockade. ern Syria in a face-off with Israel Saudi Arabia, the world’s larg- page could send the price of oil to ings but it has faced mounting eco- Iran’s threat centres on the choke amid fears of open conflict between est producer, has pledged to boost as much as $200 per barrel. The cur- nomic woes since Trump became point Strait of Hormuz, the only way the two regional powers. its output to make up for the an- rent price is around $80. president. The impending loss of vi- in and out of the Gulf and through Trump has been pressuring Teh- ticipated Iranian shortfall by at The prospect of a severe slump tal oil income could be crippling and which one-third of globally traded oil ran since May 8 when he unilateral- least 1 million bpd. in Tehran’s hard currency earnings politically explosive. passes daily. ly withdrew the United States from Iranian President Hassan Rohani, from oil exports has triggered a pan- The US Navy declared that it the landmark 2015 nuclear agree- speaking to Iranian expatriates in icked flight of currency from the al- Ed Blanche is a regular stands “ready to ensure the free- ment with Iran and reinstated some Switzerland on July 2, warned that ready imperilled rial, Iran’s curren- contributor to The Arab Weekly. He dom of navigation and the free flow sanctions because he considered if Iran’s oil exports were threatened cy, into dollars because of sanctions. has reported on the Middle East of commerce” through the narrow the pact did not go far enough in by US action, so would all others in The rial’s collapse, food price since 1967. channel which links the Gulf to the preventing Tehran from developing the region. hikes and record unemployment Arabian Sea. atomic weapons. “It seems they do not understand have ignited serious country-wide P2-3,6,17 World Cup highlights positives of integration in Europe Mahmud el-Shafey While most of these players are Flemish, Walloon days before an ethnically diverse it into the knock-out round of the second-generation immigrants born or second-gener- Belgium team beat Japan to secure World Cup thanks largely to its abil- in Belgium, what is clear is that the ation immigrants a quarterfinals spot against Brazil, ity and willingness to draw on its London idea of nationality among modern from North Afri- Belgium’s right-wing Immigration immigrant community. Fourteen of footballers has become much more ca, come togeth- Minister Theo Francken called on Switzerland’s teams of 23 are “sec- igration and integration fluid. er to support Europe to take a tough Australia- ondos” — a term used by the Swiss remain hot-button is- The Red Devils’ tense round-of-16 their national style line on migration. to denote second-generation immi- sues across Europe but victory over Japan carried a dis- team, it is clear Football often shows the positives grants. M nowhere are the vagaries tinctly Moroccan flavour with this together- of migration and integration but this However, not all immigrants leave — positive and negative — of migra- goals from Marouane Fellaini ness is something generally fails to lead to support on their heritage behind when they put tion and integration better show- and winger Nacer Chadli, unique to football. a wider societal level. on the shirt of their birth country. cased than in football and the highs both of whom were born Ironically, a few France, for example, has probably Two of Switzerland’s best players and lows of the world’s most widely in Belgium to Moroc- the most racially diverse team at the — Xherdan Shaqiri, who was born in viewed sporting event. can parents. Chadli, a Success stories. World Cup, with more than three- Kosovo, and Granit Xhaka, whose A trend has seen European teams dual citizen of Mo- Belgium’s quarters of the roster (18 players) parents are ethnic Albanian — stoked with the most ethnically diverse rocco and Belgium, Marouane Fellaini coming from the country’s varied controversy during the World Cup squads — Belgium, France, England played for the Mo- celebrates after community of immigrants. While when they celebrated goals against and Switzerland — advance to the roccan national scoring his side’s France’s fans of all backgrounds Serbia by making a “double-eagle” latter stages of the competition. team in 2010 second goal during the can unite in support of the national hand gesture — a tribute to the two- Belgium has progressively in- before choos- match between Belgium team, nobody who has visited Par- headed eagle on the Albanian flag. creased the number of non-Belgians ing to repre- and Japan at the 2018 is’s immigrant banlieues can argue on its squad. At its World Cup ap- sent the coun- FIFA World Cup in Russia, that unity and integration go be- Mahmud el-Shafey is an Arab pearance in 2014, there were nine try of his birth. on July 2. yond football. Weekly correspondent in London. non-ethnic Belgians. That number is As Belgium (AP) Switzerland, with a population 11 in 2018. fans, whether of just more than 8 million, made P20 2 July 8, 2018 Cover Story Fears of US intensifies efforts to stop Iran’s oil exports unintended Thomas Frank consequences as US increases he United States intensified diplomatic and military ef- pressure on Iran forts to convince countries to stop importing oil from T Thomas Frank Iran and support economic sanc- tions that the Trump administration plans to reimpose.