Iran, obviously, is caught in its worst plight – with President Donald Trump resuming the war after a brief halt, and at the precise moment when the body of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was about to be laid to rest. The body lay in state for months after the February 26 missile attack killing him at the outset of the US war, also involving Israel. Millions filed past his body as it moved from city to city to enable people to pay their homage, which also was used by the Iranian leadership to cement the national unity at the hour of a huge crisis enveloping the Islamic state. The Republican Guard Council that governs the nation for the past few decades after it ousted the popular Shah of Iran from power, is still rearing for a fight. It refuses to budge and is unwilling to take a few steps back despite direct onslaughts from the United States represented by its whimsical President.
Trump claims his military has hit some 20 targets inside Iran at the resumption of the war on Wednesday, followed by more hits on Thursday. Much to his dismay, however, the core of Iran, however, remains unruffled. Iran resumed its missile hits on nations in the neighbourhood that hosts American military bases, even as it is not able to directly target the US, set at a long geographical distance away. Iran is more keen on disrupting the oil movement through the Strait of Hormuz, which has come to a standstill again. Iran argues that it has not got the concessions that the interim peace pact crafted with help from Pakistan and Oman offered them. Iran refuses to trust the Americans, while President Trump sharpened his verbal attacks against Iran as well, using choicest epithets against the Islamic Shia nation.
India has reasons to feel more concerned about the resumption of war. The Chabahar port set on Iran’s south-eastern coast, in the building of which India has committed a financial support of $120 million as a counter to China’s patronage of Pakistan’s Gwadar port, has been targeted in the latest series of US missile attacks. With oil movement disrupted in the Strait of Hormuz yet again, chances are that fuel prices in India as also the rest of the world too would be in for significant increases. This is over and above the substantial increase in prices across the board in the aftermath of the war. Chances are also that this war would prolong, given the mindset of the Iranian leadership that had been engaged in preparations for a long-drawn war with the Americans. The totalitarian regime at the head of the Islamic nation can afford to act smart, unlike the Trump administration that’s already facing people’s resistance in the face of a rise in fuel prices and massive worry over the costs of this war. Trump’s popularity rating has touched its depths. Despite his big talks, Republican backing for him could face strains if the war carries on.
