The risk of escalation in the Middle East is worsening day by day. In the event of an American ground invasion, Iran threatens to open a “new front” in a strait crucial for global maritime traffic, linking the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, warned a military source cited by the Tasnim agency on Wednesday.
A mandatory passage to the Suez Canal, “the Bab el-Mandeb strait is among the most strategic straits in the world, and Iran possesses both the will and the capability to generate a perfectly credible threat against it,” this source cautioned.
Threats against threats
“If the enemy attempts a ground action on Iranian soil or anywhere else on our territory, or if it seeks to impose costs on Iran through naval maneuvers in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, we will open other fronts as a ‘surprise’,” added this military official.
On the other hand, the White House is trying to ease tensions, stating that “discussions are ongoing and they are productive,” said the spokeswoman of the US executive, Karoline Leavitt, during a press briefing. However, she also added that Donald Trump threatened to “unleash hell” if “Iran refuses to accept the current reality, if they do not understand that they have been militarily defeated and they will continue to be.”
