Very little of it now remains a ‘proxy’ war. Following the deaths of its senior commanders in an Israeli attack on the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Iran has ‘retaliated’ by firing as many as 300 missiles at Israel. According to latest reports, they managed to injure exactly one person, as the Israeli ‘Iron Dome’ did its job effectively in shooting down these missiles (with some help from US forces). End result – all the enormous amount of money spent on the missiles, etc., has wastefully gone up in flames. Money that could have been better used for the well-being of the common Iranian people.
The conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians can be explained by the complex history of the land they live in. But what lies behind Iran’s long-held animosity against Israel? Basically, Iran’s fundamentalist ideology that considers the Jews enemies of Islam. As in many other aspects of life, the regime is pursuing Islamic (Shia) objectives, disregarding all the common-sense requirements of modern-day existence. This is creating serious economic, strategic and security challenges which are very likely to have serious repercussions in the not-so-distant future.
Much of Iran’s wealth has come from oil production. Its economy is being kept afloat, despite long-term sanctions, because of the direct and indirect support from nations like Russia, China and, differently, India. One reason for this is its strategic location that provides an alternative access to this part of the world for these countries. Owing to its limited refining capacity, Iran has to import oil from Chinese refineries. In exchange, it is moving towards providing exclusive rights over its oilfields to China. The potential dangers of this should be obvious to all, particularly the Iranians!
Also, unlike the Arab nations that are preparing arduously for the post-oil era by investing their wealth in diverse sectors of the global economy, including tourism, Iran is, instead, entirely focused on its fundamentalist cause. After all, it is this that keeps the present regime in power. Even India’s efforts to offer alternative scenarios that are mutually beneficial are not making much impact. And, despite all the ‘support’ for the Palestinian cause, the Muslim nations of the world are not impressed. There has been much work done to ‘normalise’ the situation in the region over the past couple of decades, which has been sabotaged by the actions of extremist groups like Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthis, which are propped up by none other than Iran. If the present situation escalates, it will not only cause further damage to the peace process, but also lead to the future impoverishment of the entire region, with no benefit to anybody.
