US tries to assemble Hormuz tanker coalition

https://tass.com/pressreview/2102005

MOSCOW, March 16. /TASS/. Washington is unlikely to succeed in persuading its allies to escort oil tankers in the Persian Gulf; Paris launches talks on joint nuclear deterrence with nearly a dozen European countries; and Russian petroleum product producers are redirecting fuel shipments to new markets. These stories topped Monday’s newspaper headlines across Russia. 

Washington will be unable to persuade its allies to escort oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, experts believe. US partners will likely limit their involvement to technical support and symbolic assistance. Earlier, President Donald Trump called on countries that depend on Middle Eastern oil to ensure the security of the Strait of Hormuz. However, Tehran still has the resilience to resist, while the White House is beginning to realize that it has lost its grip on the situation.  

Washington is trying to draw its European allies into the Middle East conflict, as the Americans are running out of ways to pressure the Iranian leadership, Pavel Koshkin, a senior researcher at the US and Canadian Studies Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Vedomosti. In his opinion, the White House is also trying to drive down energy prices, including by partially lifting sanctions on the Russian oil industry. 

The US is trying to share the risks of the Middle East conflict with other countries and, if possible, expand the anti-Iran coalition, Dmitry Suslov, deputy director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the Russian National Research University Higher School of Economics, emphasized. European authorities condemn Iran for blocking the Strait of Hormuz, he noted. However, they are avoiding involvement in the highly unpopular American gamble. 

Meanwhile, Iran continues to employ a strategy of asymmetric warfare, exploiting the enemy’s weaknesses, buying time, and inflicting irreparable damage on military and civilian infrastructure to undermine the alliance between the US and its key partners. The most desirable scenario for Tehran is to allow regional states to walk away from cooperation with the US toward cooperation without the involvement of external actors, Grigory Lukyanov, deputy dean of the Eastern Faculty at the Russian State Academic University for the Humanities, told Izvestia. 

Despite the damage sustained, Iran still has the resources to resist, Middle East studies expert Leonid Tsukanov noted. “The initial projected timeframe for the operation, which estimated that Iran would surrender in a few days to two weeks, appears to have been inaccurate. The Americans’ planned budget has also been exceeded many times,” he emphasized. According to the expert, the US has two options: launch a full-scale campaign with a ground component similar to the one in Iraq, which would risk prolonging the conflict, or conclude the operation by announcing symbolic victories. 

Update:

China, Italy, Japan, France, Germany, South Korea, the UK and Australia all told Trump to pound sand. Trump is now begging NATO to help open the Strait of Hormuz threatening that he helped them with Ukraine and ‘NATO will have a very bad future’ should NATO not help with unblocking Hormuz.  There is of course much trolling and a suggestion for Trump is why does he not call on the Israeli Navy to ‘open the straits’?