FOLLOWING the failure of the US-Israeli illegal and unprovoked ‘shock and awe’ aerial blitzkrieg on Iran launched on 28 February, Iran’s fierce defence of their country and the global inflationary shockwave caused by Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, has resulted in an oil and LPG gas crisis which now has the imperialist war-mongers reeling in the face of their bankruptcy.
After Israel’s bombing of Iran’s vital South Pars gas field earlier this week, Iran’s immediate retaliation was to hit a huge Qatari gas plant in response, thereby escalating the war to involve the oil-producing Arab counties throughout the region, whereas Iran had previously only targeted US military bases and facilities.
US president Trump forced the Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu to publicly pledge not to attack the South Pars oil terminal again – as oil prices skyrocketed to $107 per barrel.
This inflationary energy shockwave is causing Trump to seek ever more desperate measures to prevent inflation and energy shortages from wrecking capitalist economies worldwide. Yesterday he launched a massive aerial air assault on Iranian positions in the Strait of Hormuz, after his NATO and other ‘allies’ rejected his dictatorial demand that they join the imperialist war and send warships to escort tankers through the Strait.
The US and allies then released 400,000 barrels of oil from strategic storage to ease the global shortage, with very little effect.
PM Starmer was aghast when Trump then eased sanctions on Russian oil in tankers at sea with oil-deficient India being the main beneficiary. Now the US administration is discussing easing sanctions on Iranian oil trapped at sea.
Provocatively, Israel’s Netanyahu is now pushing for ‘boots on the ground’ in Iran as ‘regime change’ cannot be accomplished from the air, threatening a major escalation of a regional war. Although denying US support for an invasion by US troops, Trump has dispatched a Marine expeditionary force of 4,500 soldiers to the Gulf. ‘We are waiting for them’ an Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander declared defiantly yesterday.
However, a much bigger Iranian ally, the Yemeni Houthis, are poised to join the conflict by blocking the Bab al Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea. This would be a disaster for the capitalist economies. But although the Houthis have not yet entered the war, Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, their leader, said on Thursday, that ‘our fingers are on the trigger, ready to blockade oil tankers and US or Israeli warships in the Strait.’
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militants in 2023-2025 fired drones and missiles at passing cargo vessels during Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
Houthi defence official Abed al-Thawr told Iran’s state-run Press TV this week: ‘Once the decision to intervene is made, the first measure could be the official declaration of a naval blockade against the United States and the Zionist regime.
‘Merchant vessels and warships, including aircraft carriers, destined for the US and the occupied territories could therefore be stopped.’
Meanwhile, in bankrupt Britain, the government borrowed £7bn more than expected in February, after a jump in welfare spending, figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS), revealed yesterday.
Rising debt interest payments, and new pressures over the Ukraine and now the war, caused Chancellor Rachel Reeves to borrow £14.3bn to plug the gap between tax receipts and government expenditure.
Reeves, in fact, has suffered another setback, after official figures revealed Britain borrowed a near record amount in February – fuelled by continuing welfare spending.
Higher public spending and rising debt interest payments saw the Chancellor borrow £14.3bn to plug the gap between tax receipts and government expenditure.
This is £7bn higher than the forecast by the government’s tax and spending watchdog and represents the second highest borrowing since monthly records began in 1993.
However, the data also showed central government spending rising to £38.7bn alone last month as pay rises and inflation increased running costs, while higher benefit payments led to a 6 per cent increase in welfare spending.
Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England (BoE), warned on Thursday that rising energy prices risked triggering an inflation shock that would push up supermarket prices.
He warned that interest rate cuts were no longer ‘on the horizon’.
Meanwhile, many British factories face closure in the next few weeks, warned Arjan Geveke, the director of the Energy Intensive Users Group, who said: ‘There’s a high risk that those factories exposed to the spot market prices will cut production in the next few weeks.’
Britain is facing a revolutionary explosion as workers take action to defend jobs.
Now is the time to join the WRP and the Young Socialists to organise the much needed British socialist revolution. There is not a moment to lose!
