Several thousand soldiers and sailors will be added to the approximately 50,000 US soldiers who are already stationed in the expanded area of operations. Officially, the transfer of the additional units is only intended to create “options” if the conflict escalates further. However, the Pentagon is obviously not expecting a surrender, as the president repeatedly demands from the Iranian regime.
At the same time, Israel has also increased its attacks. The Israeli army is again bombing Hezbollah targets around Beirut, while Iranian missiles and drones continue to be fired at Israel.
The war is no longer limited to Iran itself. It is spreading to Iraq, Lebanon, the Gulf states and the vital trade routes in between. A French soldier stationed in Iraq was killed in a drone strike. The US embassy in Baghdad was attacked. American tankers were attacked on Saudi territory.
Iran has so far shown no signs of giving in. Attacks on merchant ships around the Strait of Hormuz are increasing. Shipping traffic on the important trade route has now shrunk from more than 150 ships per day to just a few.
This means chaos for global markets. Oil prices have continued to rise sharply and at the same time fluctuate enormously. The US President’s zigzag course is also to blame for this. Trump’s confusing rhetoric, which oscillates between an imminent end to Iran’s total destruction, is extremely unsettling for trade. In the meantime, oil prices approached the $120 per barrel mark, only to fall significantly again shortly afterwards – depending on how traders interpret the latest statements from the White House. Nobody can estimate what the Americans are up to anymore.
This global economic uncertainty reflects what appears to be a deeper problem in the White House. There are more and more reports in the US media based on information from people familiar with the internal deliberations. Accordingly, Trump is under pressure from almost all political directions:
