EDITORIAL: De-escalating the US/Israel war with Iran urgently!

The ongoing war in Iran, provoked by Israel and the United States of America (USA), has reached its seventeenth day with dreadful impacts. Iran is not prepared to cringe. Instead, it has vowed to resist this increasingly vicious offensive, underpinned by its demand for reparations from the US for damages. With Iranian missiles equally pulverising oil ships and the Strait of Hormuz being tugged between Iran and the US, the global economy is primed for a long tether.

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There is a seeming effort of the belligerents to embroil other nations in the war. President Donald Trump is upset that the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer, refused to join him in this blatant abuse of US military might. Canada’s Mark Carney has also bluntly said that his country “will NEVER join in the war.” This is concerning. Therefore, nations already fretting in the wake of this geopolitical fray in the Middle East should rally for its de-escalation and, possibly, the cessation of hostilities.

Before Israel fired the first missile, the US and Iran had been at a negotiation table over the former’s long-standing demand for Iran to dismantle its nuclear programmes, among other demands. We believe that diplomatic engagement, which the Barack Obama and Joe Biden administrations had signed on to, was the best mechanism for addressing the issues, no matter how difficult they might have been. Oman was playing a key role in this regard.

At one such meeting in Geneva late February, the Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, had come out of it praising what he described as “good progress,” with both parties trying to reach an understanding on guiding principles. Ironically, this coincided with President Donald Trump’s 10-15-day ultimatum to Iran to reach a “meaningful deal” with the US, or “really bad things” could happen. This was not the language of someone involved in genuine rapprochement.

Indeed, on 28 February, US Tomahawk missiles rained on Iran, killing its Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, and six members of his family. The Defence Minister and other military top brass were also wiped out. The massacre of 175 innocent primary school girls, aged 7 to 12, in that attack, was most benumbing.

Mr Trump, as usual, did not own up to this horrific act. But a welter of evidence suggested the contrary, with a US military investigation subsequently confirming America’s liability in the carnage. According to UNESCO, this is a “grave violation of international law”.

It isn’t only this tragedy; the war itself exemplifies such abuse. Article 2 (4) of the United Nations Charter demands that member nations “refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.” Mr Trump’s Operation Epic Fury aggression, which was highly uncalled for, falls squarely within the ambit of a misuse of power. Besides, opportunities for the utilisation of diplomacy to keep negotiations on course and forestall the descent into war were not exhausted before the concert of America and Israel launched what appears to be a premeditated offensive. “Nobody expected or predicted the attacks when we had finished a third round of negotiations in Geneva,” Alireza Salarian, Iran’s ambassador to Cyprus, attested to.

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Since then, it has been a game of chest beating and avowals of destruction. At every turn, Mr Trump threatens to unleash further violence on Iran, the likes of which, he says, the world has never seen. In response, Iran has not been sitting or idling, as it has kept up its retaliation for every offensive by attacking the military bases, weapons systems and infrastructure of the US and its allies in the Middle East region. It has done this in addition to maintaining a chokehold on oil shipments across the Strait of Hormuz, in a manner that promises to negatively impact the global economy quite strongly in the near to long term.

Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 per cent of global oil flows, has caused the greatest disruptions to the international energy market, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Reports of ships laying mines in the strait last week led to the US’s sinking of 16 of them. Still, Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, said on Thursday that the strait will remain closed as a “tool of pressure.”

Meanwhile, these disruptions have forced oil prices to surge, with Brent reaching $120 per barrel a fortnight ago, the highest in four years. Presently, the countering measure of releasing strategic oil reserves to markets has forced what could be a momentary downward trend, with prices vacillating between a little above $90 and $100 per barrel, yet triggering sharp increases in the costs of goods and services across all economies. In Nigeria, a litre of petrol now sells for up to ₦1,350 per litre, from its former price of ₦887 per litre. A litre of diesel is now about ₦1,700 per litre.

The leadership transition process in Iran showed up Mr Trump’s megalomania and delusion for what it really is, as his impudent demand for input in the selection of a successor to Ayatollah Khamenei was rebuffed. Iran is not Venezuela, he seems to have forgotten, and as the Iranian foreign minister sardonically quipped, how could Mr Trump, who had next-to-no influence in imposing a mayor on New York, think he had any chance of deciding what happened in Iran?

For their continued dalliance with the US, the Gulf countries of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain remain within the deadly loop of what Iran calls “legitimate targets.” Part of Saudi Arabia’s Aramco oil refinery has been hit by Iranian missiles. So also has the Dubai airport, the world’s largest transit hub, come under fire in the penultimate week. The aviation sector in the region and parts of Europe has been in suspended animation since the war started.

Going forward, the Gulf states need to be more circumspect in allowing the US military to use their territories to launch further offensives. As every US missile hit on Iran, for which they become victims of reprisals, has the potential to instigate a broader regional conflict that will do none of them any good. This calls for introspection and restraint by all.

Clearly, Mr Trump is playing Janus by setting up a so-called Board of Peace for the rebuilding of Gaza levelled through Israel’s scorched-earth aggression, while equally inflaming a war with Iran that threatens to destabilise not just the region, but the entire globe. Iran has warned the world to be prepared for a long night of consequences, with oil projected to reach $200 a barrel, signalling more perilous days for economies ahead. With the world seemingly trapped in the web of their dark ambition, we are therefore urging Trump and his ally, Benjamin Netanyahu, to end this war of choice now!

READ ALSO: US/Israel-Iran War: WHO fumes as Israel attacks Lebanese hospitals, kills 14 health workers

Barely eight months on, the rules-based world order is being challenged once again by the duo’s reckless conduct. Why nine nations – Russia, US, China, France, UK, Pakistan, India, Israel and North Korea – have the right to possess nuclear weapons, and hence the potential of being the belligerents, while others cannot, is at the heart of this crisis. Until this issue is effectively resolved, the instability defining the region will not subside any time soon.

Beirut in Southern Lebanon is being positioned as another frontier of carnage and mass destruction, with Israel’s unrestrained offensive against Hezbollah there, which it alleges is a threat to its security, in fighting a proxy war on behalf of the Iranian regime. Hence, there is an equally urgent case for de-escalation in that area, so that Beirut is spared the fate of a Gaza-like ruin.

Largely, Mr Trump has been given a cold shoulder in Europe, in this ill-conceived war that cost the US a whopping $11.3 billion in its first six days, according to The New York Times. This bill has certainly grown a lot more staggering as the human and material investments and losses of the war continue, which would be more complicated by the boots that the Trump administration is considering to plant on the ground in Iran.

Now is the time to retreat from what could possibly turn out to be apocalyptic, while a major reset of the international system for peace to prevail has become an urgent necessity.

Nigeria and other morally-minded African nations must not define their response to this global catastrophe by silence, being cognisant of Albert Einstein’s admonition that, “If I were to remain silent, I’d be guilty of complicity.”