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The Boiling Pot Runs Over...

© lawhawk

Tensions in the region have been ratcheted up another notch this week as a several events came together and have brought several crises together. Iranian and Turkish air forces have made numerous forays into Iraqi airspace and Iraq has rightly responded by sending up their own aircraft to intercept. While no aircraft exchanged fire, the continued presence of the Iranians and Turks over Iraq will cause additional problems as the United Nations-imposed no-fly zone has been violated by Iraq in the attempt to protect Baghdad from perceived harm.

The U.S., believing that the tensions in the Persian Gulf, and especially between Iran and Iraq, are becoming more dangerous to American interests, has moved the USS Nimitz battle group to the Persian Gulf earlier than had been scheduled. The presence of 70-80 additional American aircraft, along with numerous support ships capable of launching Tomahawk cruise missiles at ground targets deep inland may present a major deterrence to a breakout of renewed war in the region.

However, Iran and Iraq have had a long history of fighting with each other. They spent nearly eight years in armed struggle against each other with hundreds of thousands killed on both sides. Throughout their conflict, each side considered the other mortal enemies to each other and to Islam. The leaders of both countries utilized religious fervor to incite their populations against the other side. The peace between the two countries has been unsteady at best since there are continued squabbles over the border and rights to major oil fields and access to the Persian Gulf. Having the U.S. navy patrolling inside the Persian Gulf will help ensure that the flow of oil from the region will continue without any major disruption barring a general outbreak of war between Iran and Iraq. In addition, news of the problems in the Gulf sent the oil markets into a roil and major stock markets also were heavily affected by this news.

The other major news event from the region was the alleged assassination attempt by Israeli intelligence agents of a leader of the Hamas organization in Jordan under the color of being Canadian citizens. Canada recalled their ambassador to Israel and Jordan, Israel's closest partner in the peace process, strongly rebuked Israel for these actions. This strikes yet another blow against the Netenyahu-led Israeli Government which has seen more than its share of scandals and problems resulting from the peace process that has all but stalled since Netenyahu took over.

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