Iran war: Saudi Arabia joins US attacks
Fighting in the Gulf region has intensified again. In conjunction with Saudi Arabia, the US military has attacked positions held by pro-Iranian militias in Iraq that, according to Washington, were being used to launch drone strikes ordered by Tehran. The US also carried out further attacks on targets within Iran itself. Iran, for its part, has launched new strikes against US bases in the region.
Tehran's misguided strategy
Corriere della Sera comments:
“The Saudis, as rich and armed to the teeth as they may be, will not be able to single-handedly shift the balance of power in this war. But their involvement reveals a massive miscalculation on the behalf of the Iranian leadership, which is only further uniting the broad Arab front allied with the US. ... We are used to analysing the miscalculations of the US and Israel in this conflict. But the Iranian leadership is also making mistakes. It might have thought that by intimidating its Arab neighbours it could undermine their loyalty to the US, but so far this has achieved the opposite.”
An intermittent conflict
In Expresso, political scientist Daniela Nunes explains why it is unlikely that the war will end anytime soon:
“The war is still raging, but its character has changed. It can no longer be measured in terms of territory conquered, destruction wrought or proven military superiority. It can be measured above all by the ability of the warring parties to extract political gain from the conflict, which neither of them is able to end nor, for different reasons, seems really interested in ending. That is the nature of intermittent warfare: a war in which military victories are fleeting whereas political calculations may be long-lasting.”
Iran wants the bomb
Akşam is convinced that Tehran is playing for time:
“If the 440 or so kilograms of uranium that is enriched to around 60 percent is enriched to a level of around 90 percent, Iran will become a nuclear nation. If Iran were to find a way to keep its 250 or so centrifuges running for three weeks, this would certainly be feasible, which is precisely the argument that Israeli officials are making. This also explains why Iran is pursuing a one-step-forwards-two-steps-back policy. ... And this is the main reason why Israel is demanding that Trump target the enrichment facilities deep beneath Mount Kazma.”