THE US and the Israeli regime ramped up their war against Iran and the people of the Middle East yesterday with an increased bombardment of Iran and Lebanon, driving the death toll to over 800 in both countries.
The frustration of the Trump administration and the Zionist regime to the continuing, and increasingly effective, retaliation by Iran, following the unprovoked and cowardly attack last Saturday, is clear.
This can be seen in the increasingly wild reasons put forward by Trump and his advisors in an attempt to ‘sell’ to the American public justification for yet another imperialist war in the region.
Every poll conducted has shown that far from being persuaded, the overwhelming majority of US citizens oppose this war – a number that will increase as the full impact on their lives becomes apparent.
If Trump thought that he could secure regime change by the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, he and the Zionists made a bad miscalculation.
They underestimated drastically the determination of the Iranians not to crumble. In fact they have developed their own military strategies to hit back against the imperialist aggressors.
What Trump and world imperialism has unleashed is a war that is engulfing the entire region, with serious consequences for the world capitalist economy.
On Monday, Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz closed and on Wednesday Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed to have complete control of this narrow strip of water, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and gas passes.
The Iranians warned any ship attempting to navigate the Strait would be attacked and burnt.
Trump has pledged for the US to cover insurance for any ships foolhardy enough to risk being sunk, and even promised US naval ships to escort oil tankers – a move that would leave US vessels facing a barrage of drone and missile attacks.
So far, no ships have taken up Trump’s offer.
The closure of the Strait is not the only problem confronting the world’s energy supply as a result of the imperialist war.
Iranian drone attacks have forced the closure of Qatar’s Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) facility, the world’s largest, at Ras Laffan.
Also closed is the Saudi Arabian oil refinery at Ras Tanura, following drone attacks from Iran along with attacks on oilfields in Israel and Iraq.
The economic effect has been to drive up the cost of energy across the globe including the UK.
By day four of the war that is engulfing the region, UK gas prices have more than doubled to 147p per therm, while the cost of oil has increased from $71 a barrel last week to $82 with experts predicting it will soon breach the $100 mark.
While the effect of this price explosion hasn’t yet filtered through to the energy costs to families in the UK, this will soon be felt as businesses and households face soaring bills across the UK and Europe.
The sharp increase in oil and gas will hit not just the cost of petrol at the pump but drive up the cost of heating, production costs, everything requiring transport and much more, driving up the rate of inflation and plunging millions of workers and their families even deeper into poverty.
The war instituted by Trump and Israel, to redraw the Middle East and place its land and vital resources under the total control of US imperialism, and its Zionist allies, has precipitated a massive political and economic crisis for world capitalism.
It will inevitably provoke the working class across the US, UK and Europe, along with the people of the world to rise up against a bankrupt system that can only offer a future of wars and poverty.
These are wars that the ruling class intend to try and make the working class pay for by driving them back to the unemployment and starvation of the 1930s Great Recession.
The powerful working class will never accept this as their fate.
The time is now here for the working class in the US, UK and Europe, to force their trade unions to act, by mobilising the strength of workers in general strikes to bring down their capitalist governments and replace them with Workers Governments and socialism.This is the way forward to the British and World Socialist Revolutions!
