The destroyer Dilman is one of the most prominent Iranian naval vessels in the Northern Fleet (Iranian press)

TEHRAN — It is not the first time that Iran has announced the arrest of an "oil tanker" in Gulf waters, but last Thursday it detained an "American oil tanker" in the Sea of Oman, in response to Washington's arrest of the same tanker and the seizure of its cargo of Iranian oil last year.

While the Iranian statement clarifies that the operation came to settle scores with Washington, explaining the reason that "the detained tanker had previously stolen an Iranian-owned oil shipment under the direction of the United States," the latter, in cooperation with the United Kingdom, at dawn on Friday, carried out air strikes on targets belonging to the Houthi group allied with the Islamic Republic.

The US-British attack came after the Houthi group attacked ships heading to Israel through the Red Sea, including American and British ships, which observers in Iran described as coming in the context of the two Western countries settling their accounts with the Yemeni group.

A former Iranian diplomat told Al Jazeera Net that the participants in striking the Yemeni depth may endanger their interests (Reuters)

Tanker Arrest

Iranian circles agree that the Middle East is heading towards more tension, which threatens to get things out of control, but they are divided in reading the goals of the main players in the Red Sea and what will result from their behavior in the next stage.

Mohsen Jaliland, a professor of international relations at the University of Tehran, believes that his country's arrest of the US oil tanker is part of Tehran's efforts to establish the equation of "tooth for tooth and eye for eye" in dealing with major powers to ensure the interests of the national Islamic Republic.

Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, Glelund believes that the United States was able within a few hours to divert attention from the arrest of its tanker in the waters of the Sea of Oman to the Red Sea by fabricating a new hotbed of tension represented in targeting Yemen, explaining that Tehran succeeded in removing the specter of maritime piracy charge, as the task was entrusted to the Iranian army forces instead of the Revolutionary Guard forces classified in the US terrorist list.

Error series

He added that more than one party has made strategic mistakes in the region, starting with the US tanker that approached Iranian waters despite the knowledge of the parties in charge of Tehran's intention to take a similar step to compensate for its seized oil, then the Russian side, last Thursday, accompanied the UN resolution condemning the Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea, and then the group mistakenly targeted a ship carrying Russian oil off the coast of Yemen.

Former Iranian ambassador to Libya, Jaafar Kanad Bashi, said the United States and Britain made a "strategic mistake" by adopting the security and military option in the Red Sea instead of working to address the main cause of tension near the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, Qannad Bashi pointed out that the Houthi group "did not threaten maritime navigation, but wants to pressure the Zionist entity" by targeting ships heading to it in order to break the siege and the entry of food and medicine into the Gaza Strip, describing the US-British attack on Yemen as "an indication of their participation in the extermination of the people of Gaza."

Common denominator

Qannad Bashi concluded that the US coalition in the Red Sea "miscalculated Yemen and proved that it does not know the significance of the Yemeni dagger that comes out of its sheath to support the oppressed," stressing that attacks on Yemen will not stop the Houthis from targeting ships heading to Israel, not to mention that those involved in striking the Yemeni depth may endanger their interests.

The former Iranian diplomat said that the "Western Hebrew axis" is quick to accuse Iran of standing behind every small and large occurrence in the region, whether in Gaza, Iraq or Yemen, describing his country's support for "the links of the axis of resistance as a common denominator of Zionist Western accusations against Tehran and an indicator of the effectiveness of Tehran's policy to confront Western arrogance."

Reuters news agency quoted a senior US official as saying that Iran bears "responsibility for the role it plays in the attacks against US forces," adding, "We believe that Iran is involved in every stage of the Houthi attacks."

World system

On the other hand, the head of the Simorgh Parekh Institute for Future Studies, Mehdi Mutahar Nia, reads the developments of the Red Sea in the context of the United States' policy to reshape a new world order in the 21st century, explaining that the importance of the region extending from the Gulf waters, the Strait of Hormuz, then the Bab al-Mandeb and the Gulf of Aden is due to its geostrategic location and status for the United States, not just energy.

Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, Mutahar Nia likened "the behavior of some episodes of the axis of resistance at the present time as a wonderful pass for the American scorer to score a goal according to his major policies, and this is what was picked up by the British policy to align with the American power after London abandoned to accompany Washington in its invasion of Iraq in 2003," as he put it.

The United States and its allies want to control strategic straits to ensure the flow of energy and control international trade as Washington plans for the new world order.

RAF Typhoon launched strikes against Houthis in Yemen (Getty Images)

The future of the region

The head of the Simorgh Parekh Institute for Future Studies concluded that the region is heading towards more tension during the next stage, noting that the main players are controlling the tension so far, but he fears that things will break out if some parties misjudge the seriousness of the current developments.

In this context, Mohsen Jaliland, a professor of international relations at the University of Tehran, believes that the Middle East region is on a date with a comprehensive change in its political system after the current battle of Gaza and its repercussions on the balance of power, stressing that if things get out of control, Tehran's options to deal with the escalation in the Red Sea are limited to some trump cards.

These cards, according to Gleland, are to manage challenges beyond Iran's borders by directing allies in the axis of resistance, which they have been doing over the past decades, but Western powers are actively seeking to neutralize these cards to urge Tehran to sit with them at the negotiating table or push them towards direct confrontation.

And also by employing diplomacy to contain tension but without abandoning allies.

The Iranian academic predicted that wisdom in the region will prevent current developments from turning into an intractable crisis, noting that all previous wars have erupted due to miscalculations, which makes the possibility of rolling current developments and triggering an open regional or global war.

Source : Al Jazeera