An Iranian warship sailed into the Red Sea Monday, according to Iranian state media and other reports, risking a potential escalation of tensions in waters where attacks on commercial shipping are becoming frequent and forcing navies to intervene.
The arrival of the Iranian vessel, the frigate Alborz, in the Red Sea comes amid an ongoing conflict that started with Israel and Hamas but has spread to involve the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels, among others.
Following weeks of American warships shooting down Houthi threats, such as missiles and drones, US Navy helicopters on Sunday fired on and destroyed three Houthi attack boats attempting to board a Maersk cargo ship. A fourth boat fled the attack.
Unless the goal is igniting regional passions in hopes of bringing some biblical end of the world, I don’t really see the end game here.
Solidifying control over the Suez Canal - note that Saudis and Iran are (at least for now) not at their throats so some or other kind of cooperation for mutual trade profits may be in order. Their agreement was brokered by China, and the Chinese are very much interested in keeping Suez open. For the local powers the best case scenario is to make westerners GTFO. But the westerners won’t gtfo as long as their ships are under fire. It’s not unlikely that Houthi got “off the leash”, in such case the Iranian warship would paradixically sail there to discipline the attackers and reduce tensions. Howevwr obviously no one would admit it openly.
A more conspirational take is that the heat in the ME, from Hamas to Houthi, is a bid to pressure the US into unpopular moves (stubborn support to Israel, actual violence on the seas, maybe some diplomatic fuckups) and produce an electoral advantage for Trump.
Why would Iran want Trump??
Probably because he’s not really interested in what’s happening outside of his country, and can’t place Iran on a map anyway.
He’s got a Sharpie and is not afraid to use it on a world map!
That’s just a bad take, he spent most of his term doing dick measuring contests with Iran/NK/China. To say he doesn’t care about foreign policy is a complete lie, he absolutely cares about the rest of the world insofar as it demonstrates his “strength” as a “powerful leader.”
Plus the last time we had an altercation with Iran during his presidency we almost went to war over it, we were on ready 30’s on deployment the whole week just in case the declaration of war was dropped.
Unless Iran’s goal is to drag us into war, there’s no way they’d prefer a Trump presidency.
I can’t speak for any of the information the other user posted, but Iran and Russia are allies when it comes to military. If Trump comes in, he is pro Russia, anti Ukraine.
Edit: can someone explain the downvotes? Are they saying Iran is not a military ally of Russia, or that Trump is not pro Russia anto Ukraine? Honest question
Because while his short term rhetoric is anti-Iran, the long-term outcome of a Trump-led kakistocracy will benefit them.