Iran threatens Red Sea shipping, warns of new front if US invades
Iran has warned it could target Red Sea shipping if the United States launches a ground invasion, raising fears of wider disruption to global trade. — AFP pic
Thursday, 26 Mar 2026 11:45 AM MYT
TEHRAN, March 26 — Iran would target shipping in the Red Sea, a crucial conduit for global oil and other goods leading to the Suez Canal, if the United States launches a ground invasion, an unnamed military official told local media yesterday.
“If the enemy attempts a ground operation on Iranian islands or anywhere else on our territory, or if it seeks to impose costs on Iran through naval manoeuvres in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, we will open other fronts as a ‘surprise’,” the official was quoted as saying by the Tasnim news agency.
“The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is among the most strategic straits in the world, and Iran has both the will and the capability to pose a fully credible threat against it,” the official said.
The Bab el-Mandeb Strait, like the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Iran, is a chokepoint for global shipping that lies between Yemen and Djibouti at its narrowest point.
Iran has close links to and arms the Houthi rebel group in Yemen which greatly reduced Red Sea traffic in October 2023 when they began attacking vessels in retaliation for Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
The group has been battered by air strikes since, but analysts say the rebels could move from their position on the sidelines of the current US-Iran war and take a more active role.
However, the Houthis are seen as less ideologically tethered to Iran and have long enjoyed more independence than other Tehran-backed militant groups in the Middle East.
US President Donald Trump is moving thousands of airborne troops and extra marines to the Gulf amid speculation that he might order a limited ground invasion to either seize Iranian oil assets in the Gulf or secure the Strait of Hormuz.
One possible target is Kharg Island, which handles almost all of Iran’s crude exports.
Trump has called it a “little oil island that sits there, so totally unprotected”.
Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has slowed to a trickle because of the conflict, disrupting roughly 20 percent of global oil supplies.
Crude prices have spiked to around 100 dollars a barrel as a result of what the International Energy Agency has called “the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market”. — AFP
fuck ALWAYS Chickens Out.
ReplyDeleteYou heard it here first: Iron Dome is essentially free for Israel, since it is now in mass production and its manufacturing is subsidised by export orders to the tune of billions.
ReplyDeleteThe ability of the Tamir interceptors to shoot down ballistic missiles was first seen in June, in their terminal attack phase, and it totally inverts the cost equation between Iran and Israel in the missile anti-missile war. The interceptors are much cheaper than the missiles, and so far their launch systems have proven impervious to counterattack, even agaisnt the largest ballistic missile inventory ever assembled.
Rumours of Israel running short on interceptors are false. The IDF has begun using interceptors against some of the cluster munitions, itself an extraordinary feat—to be able to assess the risk of up to 80 munitions at once and fire off dozens of interceptors to hit the ones that pose the most danger. In the first weeks of this war, Israel did not attempt to intercept the small munitions, since they pose minimal risk to civilians under shelter. Their lethal blast radius is just a few metres, and many are failing to detonate. In total, the thousands of bomblets killed three people.
Since videos now show Iron Dome activated against this negligible threat, the IDF clearly feels that the remaining Iranian and Hezbollah stockpiles are no match for their own interceptor stockpiles.
The IDF claims to have intercepted about 93% of the 600 or so missiles fired at Israel from Iran, and while there are huge amounts of disinformation on this topic, the facts are the facts: some 500 tonnes of high explosive launched at Israel (500–1,000 kg per missile) has led to just 20 deaths, all civilians. So whatever Israel is doing, it is working.
Israel's Iron Dome wasn't designed to intercept ballistic missiles arriving from outside the atmosphere. But its relatively cheap Tamir interceptors seem to have developed the ability to do exactly that, as increasing numbers of videos like this show.
https://x.com/saul_sadka/status/2036832712900714848?s=46&t=8K6fzabO3g6uaj4KxwSSjg
Biased source:
DeleteSaul Sadka
@Saul_Sadka
Author, The Intertextual Tanakh.
Bible Scholarship, Real Estate.
https://instagram.com/saulsadka/
Buy the book at http://amazon.com/dp/1602804702
AuthorTel Aviv saulsadka.substack.com
TS, you're simply swallowing shailoks' kerbau - what a shame
Just last week KT kerbau my comment about impending fuel shortages, he said only rural area lah. Now…
ReplyDeleteChris Bowen has to tell the truth. He must level with the Australian people.
We are in a real crisis.
Today BP in Roselle, an inner city suburb, doesn't have 91 or 95 petrol, and the price of Deisel is over $3.15 a litre.
Shortages are already here. It's unmistakable.
He's tried to cover it up in the cities but that's not working anymore.
We can all see it.
At some point push must come to shove.
Bowen is wasting his time trying to change global temperatures, instead of ensuring we have the fuel we need to survive.
He is like the work experience kid trying to perform brain surgery. Very dangerous.
It has real world consequences for us all. Bowen can't just bullshit his way through it, like everything else he's done so far.
He is a danger to our nation.
Food security, job security and energy security all rely on the availability of fuel.
The problem with Bowen is, he won't even admit we have a problem.
And you can't fix a problem that you don't even admit exists.
We can have no faith in his ability or his word.
He must go now.
https://x.com/matt_camenzuli/status/2036990966700401080?s=46&t=8K6fzabO3g6uaj4KxwSSjg
Kacau Red Sea Egypt will be very angry dia punya Suez Canal toll is a Cash Cow.
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a real Shia vs Sunni. And we know who gonna win.
Shias can oso forget about getting Haj visa this year from Saudis.
Chris must have a uuugge backyard, hoarding Billions of liters of petrol.
ReplyDelete#BREAKING Chris Bowen says Australia has billions of litres of petrol & diesel in strategic reserves & insists the Albanese Government is prepared.
Meanwhile over 500 petrol stations across Australia are out of fuel with NSW & Victoria the hardest hit.
https://x.com/ryandally08/status/2037038012899684482?s=46&t=8K6fzabO3g6uaj4KxwSSjg
strange I didn't encounter refuelling at petrol stations - must be living in an Australia different from yours
Delete