US-Iranian tensions grow

After John Bolton’s recent ejection from the White House, there was a brief hope on the international stage that the Trump administration’s hawkishness towards Iran would cool to some degree. This hope seems to have been in vain. A drone strike against the Saudi Arabian oil processing infrastructure and Iran’s continued acts of protest through the violation of the nuclear deal has led to the Trump administration sticking with their anti-Iranian rhetoric.

The recent drone strike, which damaged oil facilities in Khurais and Abqaiq, was claimed by the Houthi rebels in Yemen, whom the Saudi Arabian government has been trying to defeat for the last 5 years. Despite the Houthi rebels claiming responsibility for the attack, officials in both the Saudi Arabian and United States governments have been suggesting Iranian culpability. There is some basis to this blame, due to the fact that the Iranian government has a history of supplying and training the Houthi rebels as well as other groups opposed to Saudi Arabian or US dominance in the Middle East.

Despite this strike being a victory for Iran against Saudi Arabia in their cold war, it will likely damage their prospects of getting the United States to come back into the fold on the nuclear agreement that was struck by the Obama administration with Iranian president Rouhani and other nuclear states. The United States was the first to violate the agreement and renege on the initial promise to remove the majority of sanctions against Iran so long as Iran did not develop nuclear weapons. Ever since the United States reinstated its sanctions, the Iranian government has been slowly reactivating its nuclear program in an attempt to convince the United States to come back to the deal. Other nuclear powers such as the EU, China, and Russia are mostly still holding to the deal, though the Trump administration is seeking to pry them away and force Iran back into an economic position that leaves them worse off then they were prior to the nuclear deal.

These repudiations of the Trump administrations will mean that President Trump’s frustration with the Iranian government has only grown in recent weeks and he has repeatedly mentioned the possibility of some form of military response to Iran’s actions. The president has ordered, and nearly followed through on, an attack against Iran before. Whether there will be another attack and what the consequences of this attack would be is a prospect that worries many.

Joseph Doner - Political Editor