America’s friends must help extricate it from an unlawful war
I don’t know that America has many friends, since Trump has gone to great lengths to alienate so many nations. Anyway..
The superpower has lost control of its foreign policy, writes Badr Albusaidi, Oman’s chief diplomat
TWICE IN NINE months the United States and Iran have been on the verge of a real deal on the most difficult issue that divides them: Iran’s nuclear-energy programme and American fears that it could be a weapons programme.
So it was a shock but not a surprise when on February 28th—just a few hours after the latest and most substantive talks—Israel and America again launched an unlawful military strike against the peace that had briefly appeared really possible.
Go back to my Feb 26/26 post- Significant Progress Made- World peace tossed, the global economy, ruined by Usrael
Iran’s retaliation against what it claims are American targets on the territory of its neighbours was an inevitable, if deeply regrettable and completely unacceptable, result.
Faced with what both Israel and America described as a war designed to terminate the Islamic Republic, this was probably the only rational option available to the Iranian leadership.
Trump’s window for face-saving exit may be closing now
Escalation is only putting him in a lose-lose situation, so negotiating is the only option. However, Iran’s growing leverage could prevent an easy off-ramp.
The developments of the past 24 hours may prove a turning point in this war: Israel and America’s escalation by striking oil facilities at the Qatari-Iranian Pars field, and in Asaluyeh, Iran’s massive retaliation against oil and gas installations in Saudi, Qatar and beyond, which shot up oil prices, the near downing of an American F-35 fighter by Iran, and Secretary Bessent’s revelations that the U.S. may un-sanction Iranian oil on the waters to bring down oil prices.
Plan A came crashing down after it became clear that the assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei neither brought the implosion of the theocracy nor their surrender. As a result, Washington is increasingly letting the Israelis drive the bus, by virtue of them having a plan, even though their plan does not serve U.S. interests (the Israelis want to prolong the war to degrade Iran’s entire industrial base, regardless of what happens to energy markets, Trump’s presidency, and security in the region as a whole.)
The Israeli strike against the Pars field, coordinated with the U.S., is particularly important because it violated a promise Trump made to Qatar back in September 2025 that Israel would no longer be allowed to strike Qatar.
But that gas field is shared by both Iran and Qatar, hence it was an attack on Qatar as well as on Iran. With American coordination. This — and the impact on energy markets — may explain why Trump took to social media to blame Israel for the attack and publicly forbade them from striking further energy fields.
But Bessent’s comments about un-sanctioning Iranian oil currently sitting in tankers on the sea are the most important. Though it’s primarily done to push down oil prices, it appears that we may have nevertheless entered sanctions relief territory out of necessity.
I wrote several days ago that Tehran is very unlikely to end the war even if the U.S. pulls out and declares victory. Iran has leverage for the first time in years and will seek to trade it in. It has publicly demanded a closing of American bases, reparations, and sanctions relief in order to stop shooting at Israel and open the Straits. The first may happen over time anyway, the second is highly unlikely, but the third — sanctions relief — may become more plausible as the cost of the war rises, and escalation strategies become increasingly suicidal for Trump.
To understand the sheer desperation of the US administration
“In the coming days, we may unsanction the Iranian oil that’s on the water. It’s about 140 million barrels,” Bessent told Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria” program.
He said the release of the sanctioned Iranian oil into global supplies would help keep oil prices down for the next 10 to 14 days. Oil prices have been above $100 per barrel for much of the past two weeks as Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz to shipping and has attacked tankers.
The Trump cult types are pushing this as a win against Iran. This is insanity.
1st- How much will this move reduce oil prices, if at all? Bessent doesn’t say. It isn’t going to make any sort of substantive difference
2nd- They most probably will not sell the oil in American dollars.
The US and Israel should not have attacked Iran, nearly 3 weeks ago.. The fall out from this is going to be, globally, economically and environmentally extremely unfortunate perhaps even catastrophic– We ain’t seen nothing yet!