The Strait of Hormuz is the jugular vein of the world economic system.  Iran has it in a chokehold and can put the knife across it any time it chooses. For the moment, the world is gripped by the incredibly destructive power that the US and Israel are unleashing on Iran. Despite the early “successes”, however, the prospect of the ongoing closure of the Strait is triggering panic attacks among the people who know what is likely to happen next: energy experts. 

Western countries, including  Australia and New Zealand, were quick to line up to support Operation Epic Fury, the US-Israeli blitzkrieg on the Islamic Republic of Iran. They were effectively throwing international law into a cauldron of blood and mayhem.  These same Western powers – and the Gulf Arab states that stand with them – may soon live to regret it.

When I heard the terrible news that the Americans and Israelis had killed over 150 children this week in an elementary school in Minab in Southern Iran it took me back to a wonderful day I spent in Isfahan in 2018. I met lots of Iranian school children and their teachers that day. They were keen to practise their English and ask lots of questions. I want to share that day with you because it was filled with hope, with promise for a better world.  

Cuba believes a genuine “third way” can only exist if it defends the economic sovereignty of states against coercion. For more than sixty years, our country has been subjected to a policy explicitly designed to generate material hardship in order to force political change. The issue therefore is not ideological but systemic: no nation can claim strategic autonomy while tolerating that another punishes third countries for lawful trade.

If Israel and the US attack Iran, the cosy worlds of Europe, Australia and New Zealand could be swept up in an economic catastrophe. Should the Iranians survive a terrifying onslaught, they have vowed to strike back in a way that could crash the global economy.  How they could quite possibly do this is the topic of this article.

Intelligence from New Zealand and their own automated systems had detected a violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2397 – a centrepiece of the American campaign to bring down North Korea's nuclear and ballistic weapons programme. Someone was transferring money to the North Koreans, a breach of the US Treasury’s Destination Country and Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list.  Someone was violating US enforcement of sanctions on North Korea. Someone was going to pay for it. 

Commodore Steve Jermy (ret) recently gave a masterclass in strategy – how to measure success and how to achieve it. If the West applied these simple tools of analysis it would abandon its current approach to international relations.

It’s time to stop this Medieval siege. UN Security Council Resolution 2397 has already killed thousands of North Korean civilians. As long as it remains in force, hundreds of thousands of innocent people remain at risk in a country that is suffering dire food insecurity. New Zealand, Australia and the US have played a major role in inflicting foreseeable lethal consequences on North Korean civilians. Sanctions against the North’s weapons programme have achieved nothing but human misery.

Trump’s rough woo-ing of Canada to become the 51st state, and his threat to use military force to seize both Greenland and the Canal, speak to a back-to-basics focus for American imperialism – a shift in US policy that will bring it closer to its core strategic interests

As protests unfold in Iran, Israeli and US figures openly talk of regime collapse. Foreign interference risks worsening violence and derailing change from within. What’s really going on?