The U.S. and Israeli air war against Iran has widened, with no end in sight as Israel attacked Lebanon in response to strikes by Hezbollah and Tehran kept up its missile and drone attacks on Gulf states that host U.S. military bases. The attack on Iran has pitched the Gulf into war, killed scores of people in Iran, Israel and Lebanon, thrown global air transport into chaos and shut down shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the world's oil trade skirts the Iranian coast, sending oil prices surging.
Underlining the risks, Kuwait mistakenly shot down three American F-15E fighter jets during an Iranian attack, U.S. Central Command said. All six crew members ejected and were safely recovered. Video filmed at a location verified by Reuters showed one of the planes spiralling out of the sky, an engine on fire.
The U.S. military said it had struck over 1,250 targets in Iran and destroyed 11 Iranian ships. This is part of a broader campaign to disrupt Iran's nuclear program and ballistic missile capabilities, which have been deemed a threat by the U.S. and its allies.
An Iranian Revolutionary Guards senior official said on Monday that the Strait of Hormuz is closed and Iran will fire on any ship trying to pass, Iranian media reported. This is Iran's most explicit warning since telling ships it was closing the export route on Saturday, a move that threatens to choke a fifth of global oil flows and send crude prices sharply higher.
The strait is the world's most vital oil export route, which connects the biggest Gulf oil producers, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates, with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. With this closure, Tehran made good on years of threats to block the narrow waterway in retaliation for any attack on the Islamic Republic.
For Trump, the weekend strikes against a foe of the U.S. and its allies for generations amounted to the biggest U.S. foreign policy gamble in decades. The campaign could pose a major political risk for the president's Republican Party in this year's midterm elections, with only one in four Americans supporting the attack, according to a weekend Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Average U.S. retail gasoline prices rose above $3 per gallon in part due to the conflict, a worrying sign for a president who already faces growing discontent over bread-and-butter issues. The operation has also disrupted global air transport, with many airlines canceling flights through the region.
In his most extensive public comments so far, Trump said he had ordered the attack to thwart Tehran's nuclear program and a ballistic missile program that he said was growing rapidly. He gave no sign that the operation would end soon.
The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, said more forces were still on their way to the region. This is not a single overnight operation. The military objectives ... will take some time to achieve, and in some cases will be difficult and gritty work.
As the conflict escalates, many are left wondering about the long-term implications of this foreign policy gamble. Will it lead to a more stable Middle East, or will it further destabilize the region? Only time will tell.
The escalating conflict in the Middle East poses significant risks to global stability and economic growth.
