Oil on the threshold of $100… Is the region entering a new phase of escalation?

Exclusive Follow-ups – Al-Khabar Al-Yemeni:

Crude oil prices jumped by more than 4% on Tuesday, as direct military confrontation between Washington and Tehran renewed.

Brent crude recorded more than $94 per barrel, its highest level in weeks.

Brent crude futures rose 2.71% to $90.49 per barrel in Monday’s session, before continuing to rise on Tuesday to above the $94 level, while US West Texas Intermediate crude rose 2.83% to $85.76.

This sharp rise came after US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced the execution of new airstrikes targeting sites belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in the vicinity of the Strait of Hormuz, in response to the Revolutionary Guard’s attacks on commercial ships and American forces in Hormuz.

Washington continues to violate the memorandum of understanding signed last June and is seeking to abort the path of returning to the implementation of its terms, relying on a mixture of naval blockade, waging an economic war, and repeated resort to the military option, which has repeatedly proven its failure.

It is noteworthy that the airstrikes on the vicinity of Hormuz are the latest episode in a series of American attempts to seize the most influential Iranian card. However, Tehran, which showed flexibility in earlier stages, has returned to affirm that it is in no hurry to reopen the strait, and that any talk of resuming navigation remains conditional on Washington fulfilling its actual commitments, not on the rhetoric of threat and the recurring pattern of pressure.

American practices, from naval blockade to economic war, show that the bet on forcing Iran to retreat is a decidedly failed strategy, as proven by the numbers. Navigation traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has not exceeded 5 transits per day, while oil prices have risen to record levels, an indication that the one paying the price of escalation is the global economy, not Tehran, which continues to hold on to the strait’s card as a legitimate pressure tool, at a time when Washington flounders between its helpless options, betting on tools that have all failed to change the equation of power in the region.