Ongoing middle east crisis and effects on global economies

Before we went to bed last night, Iran was raining missiles on all corners of the State of Israel.

Indeed, Iran had no choice than to retaliate as a result of the extreme humiliation they have been put through by Israel over the past few weeks.

The assassination of Ismael Haniyah, the head of Hamas political bureau who had been invited as guest for innaugural ceremony to swear-in new Iranian president by a bomb planted under his bed in a safe house in Tehran.

The bombing of Iranian Embassy building in the Syrian capital Damascus which killed some top Iranian diplomats and high-ranking security capos was another slap to the face of the Iranian government.

And what finally broke the camel's back was the assassination of the leader of Herzbollah Hassan Nasrallah, under whose stewardship the non-state actor and proxy of Iran, wielded enormous influence and power within the circles of Axis of resistance.

In the view of these developments, everyone who knows about geopolitics and war would know the Iran launching attack on Israel was imminent. Indeed, American intelligence agencies predicted the date this was going to happen, and it did.

However, Iran itself knows Israel was also awaiting this retaliation for an excuse to hit Iran very hard and especially target their major source of power, oil, and well as nuclear assets.

And China being so dependent on Iranian oil, brings a wider issue, vis-a-vis regionalization of the conflict in broader Middle East context. And the region being major source of crude oil, we should expect a sharp increase in oil prices if Israel goes ahead with retaliatory action on Iran.

What makes the situation much dire is the Houtis in Yemen who are allies of Iranian proxies in the region, and key member of Axis of Resistance.

Besides launching projectiles into Israel, the Houtis have succeeded in bringing to a complete halt, vessels and all commercial activities from the Suez canal, through the Gulf of Aden.

Disruptions to movements of commerce through the Gulf of Aden will definitely affect global supply chains, and ultimately effects on prices of items.

In all this, the global hegemonic power, America, which has the leverage to weigh-in the key protagonists, Israel and Iran, has chosen to look the other way, and rather propping up their everlasting ally, Israel, to prosecute a kind of proxy war.

The situation is dire for all of us, and therefore, the world has absolutely nothing to be happy about.

Justice A. Newton-Offei

newtonoffeija@gmail.com