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Iranian Threats Poised to Escalate
(Asharq Al-Awsat-UK) Abdulrahman Al-Rashed - The death toll among the Houthi militia in Yemen is soaring. Front-line fighting has now moved to their stronghold of Sa'dah, near the Saudi border, where they have lost a large number of their leaders, most notably Ibrahim Al-Houthi, the brother of their commander. The Iranian tanker seized in Gibraltar and held for six weeks shows Iran's problems in transporting oil. Numerous marine service companies have announced the withdrawal of their registry flag from vessels linked to Iran, the latest being Panama's Maritime Authority, which forced Iran to raise its flag and change the name of the Grace 1 while it was still in custody. We will surely see more Iranian attempts to intimidate the world, as it did with Britain, which is actually an extension of four decades of a strategy that has made Iranian military activities the pillar of its foreign policy. Years of international inaction toward Iran's aggression have encouraged its military expansion, and its threats to the region and the whole world with nuclear weapons, terrorist operations, control of maritime corridors, and launching integrated wars. The writer is former general manager of Al-Arabiya and former editor-in-chief of Asharq Al-Awsat.