Editorial: Tension in Hormuz Wednesday, 04 January 2012 05:05

Suddenly, tension is building up over the Strait of Hormuz. Those who live in this region have a duty to make sure that it doesn’t escalate beyond the point it usually does. The Gulf region will be the first to be rattled by the slightest turbulence in the otherwise calm, but often tense, waters of the Strait.

Plenty of sabre-rattling is taking place again over this narrow strait whose importance far outweighs its size. Iran threatened yesterday to take action if the US Navy moved an aircraft carrier into the Strait, which was Tehran’s most aggressive statement yet after weeks of tension as new US and EU financial sanctions began take a toll on its economy. “We don’t have the intention of repeating our warning, and we warn only once,” Iran’s armed forces chief Brigadier General Ataollah Salehi said.  Responding to the threats, Washingtin dismissed them as those of a weakened, isolated regime but at the same time said it was not seeking a “confrontation” with Tehran. But the Pentagon insisted it had no plans to pull warships out of the Gulf region. That sets the stage for Scene Two.

Tension has been escalating steadily after the latest US and EU sanctions, targeting Iranian oil sector in a serious way, came into effect. The sanctions signed into law by US President Barack Obama on New Year’s Eve threatens to ‘cut off’ any financial institutions that work with Iran’s central bank from the US financial system, which will effectively block the main path for payments for Iranian oil. The sanctions have hit Iranian economy. Its rial currency has fallen by 40 percent against the dollar in the past month and queues formed at banks and some currency exchange offices in Tehran shut their doors yesterday as people scrambled to buy dollars to protect their savings from the currency’s fall.

The latest verbal fighting brings the long standoff between Iran and the West over the former’s nuclear programme into a dangerous new terrritory. In the same way as Tehran is determined to go ahead with its nuclear programme, in fact pubicising its progress on this front, the West is determined to stop the regime on its tracks. The sound and fury we are witnessing is the result of the resoluteness of both sides to go ahead with their aggressive strategies.

Any confrontation in Hormuz between Washington and Tehran will not remain a conflict between the two, but will suck into it the entire region with dangerous consequences. The Gulf states need to play a more active role to ensure that the tension doesn’t spiral out of control. After pulling out its forces from Iraq, Washington shoud not push this region into another conflict.