The messages emanating from Iran is ominous.
In a strategic manoeuvre Iran has started to get its hold on the Strait of Hormuz. This has send alarm bells in the Western world and the Gulf region.
During its current naval exercise in the strait Iran has has fired Qader, a surface-to-air missile designed to avoid radars. This is clearly cocking a snook at the United States which has warned it against blocking the waterway.
The strait is a narrow strip of waterway from which 80% of Gulf region's oil transported to the outside world. The strait is the life-line of Iran's economy as much of its oil exports pass through it. Also other OPEC nations seabound oil traffic depends on it.
Already Iran is under sanctions from the US. By choking the strait it will invite sanctions from the European Union as well.
However, ambitions of Iran is on boil. And muscle-flexing is part of its gambit to mark its presence as a dominant regional power. The Saudi Arabia-Iran conflict for the crown of middle east Muslim leadership is a long-simmering broil. The latest addition to this mish mash is the Iranian testing of domestically made nuclear fuel rod.
This nuclear rite-de-passage of Iran has made the United States sit up and spit-and-polish its warwares.
The undercurrent of all this bluff and buster by both the parties is that the oil trading is under jeopardy and any war, embargo or tightening of the strait sluice can play havoc with the fragile economy of the West and that of Iran.
Iran knows this well, and is using this threat of bullet to the economic underbelly of the West, as an ace-up-its sleeve to further its regional interests.
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