Iran brandishes its strategic weapon to bring West to knees

SANAA, June 23 (YPA) – Iran threatened on Sunday to use its strategic weapon to bring America and European countries to their knees. This weapon was used once in the October 1973 war with “Israel”.

After the US attacks on Iran, the Iranian parliament’s approval of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and its referral to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council for ratification, had become a terrifying weapon for Europe and the United States, and a severe punishment for the Gulf states, halting the daily passage of almost 20.5 million barrels of oil and petroleum products through the strait, equivalent to 20% of global supplies.

The Strait of Hormuz is the economic lifeline of the Gulf states, upon which Saudi Arabia relies for 90% of its oil exports, Iraq and Kuwait for 98% of their exports, and Qatar for all its liquefied natural gas exports.
Economists have expected the price of a barrel of crude oil to exceed $150 within the first hours of Iran’s closure of the strait, resulting in daily losses exceeding $3 billion, in addition to the complete paralysis of global supply chains for jet fuel and freight.

Closing the Strait of Hormuz, the experts believed, would be a catastrophic scenario that might devastate the Gulf economy, halt Saudi and Emirati exports despite their limited alternatives, and completely bankrupt Kuwait, which has no alternative for its exports. The same applies to Iraq, which has a limited alternative, operating the 300,000 barrel-per-day Kirkuk–Baniyas pipeline.

They stated that Tehran had the full capacity to force European countries to pay a hefty price for their energy bills, increasing by more than 300%, and to return inflation to record levels. They also stated that the United States might remain powerless to undertake any military action to open the strait, which would entail a devastating war for the entire region.

The experts clarified that America’s strategic oil reserve would not last more than three months due to the very limited alternatives available. Saudi Arabia’s western pipeline on the Red Sea, with a capacity of 7 million barrels per day, and the UAE’s Fujairah pipeline, with a capacity of 1.5 million barrels per day, cannot cover normal shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

While some believed that the Islamic Republic of Iran had an exceptional and irreplaceable opportunity to end the blockade and embargo imposed on it by the United States and European countries, Tehran can currently impose its conditions by force of arms, particularly its naval cruise missiles capable of hitting warships and sinking oil tankers within hours.

Furthermore, Iran had a massive network of naval mines capable of closing the Strait of Hormuz without requiring any naval fleets.

Although these steps Tehran would take have economic and military implications, they amount to nothing more than a war with the Zionist entity and the continuation of the blockade imposed on it in the event of a wider war in the region. This may ensure that the Strait of Hormuz remains an economic weapon for realizing Iranian ambitions, with observers predicting that Trump will not embark on a military confrontation in the region.

They also considered the closure of the Strait of Hormuz a new phase through which Tehran could discipline the Gulf states, which have become an advanced front for the Israeli enemy over the past decades. This may be achieved by intensifying hostility among Arab and Islamic peoples through sectarian and religious incitement in many countries of the region, in line with the Zionist project and far removed from the issues of the nation.

AA