The Military Attaché of the US Embassy in Egypt had made specially from Cairo on the way to the Suez Canal, at his side, the head of the Suez Canal Society Mohab Mamisch. All because the US aircraft carrier USS "Abraham Lincoln" sailed on Thursday through the waterway from the Mediterranean into the Red Sea. His destination is the Persian Gulf.

It is not the first time that the ship has set course for the Gulf. Already in the 1990s, the aircraft carrier was deployed several times in the region - at that time to oversee the no-fly zone over southern Iraq imposed on Saddam Hussein. Most recently, the "Abraham Lincoln" created in 2012 in the Persian Gulf, then in the context of the international anti-terrorist fight against al-Qaeda.

But the mission off the Iranian coast, which is now imminent, is different than the previous missions: For US President Donald Trump justifies the deployment of the aircraft carrier that Iran allegedly threatens American interests in the region. For the same reason, the Pentagon has deployed several B-52 bombers to the US military base Al Udeid in Qatar, which is just a few hundred kilometers from the Iranian coast. And now it has become known that the United States is relocating another warship to Iran.

Staff Sgt. Ashley Gardner / US Air Force via AP

B-52 bombers approaching Qatar: US points to threat from Iran

With the presence of US troops, the risk of military confrontation also increases - just by possible misunderstandings in the Strait of Hormuz. The gateway to the Persian Gulf, which transports more than a quarter of the world's oil needs, is only 55 kilometers wide at its narrowest point.

After trumpeting Iran's nuclear deal a year ago and subsequently cracking down on Tehran's sanctions, Iranian President Hassan Rohani announced that he would no longer be willing to accept two points of the deal this year, so the danger of an escalation of the conflict is so big as since the conclusion of the 2015 agreement not.

The agreement in the nuclear dispute touched only a part of the fundamental differences between Iran on the one hand and the USA, Europe, Israel and much of the Arab world on the other. The core purpose of the Nuclear Deal was to prevent the Islamic Republic, whose leaders have repeatedly argued for the annihilation of the Jewish state, from acquiring nuclear weapons.

But there are also a number of conflicts in the region where Tehran, the West and its regional allies pursue conflicting interests. The overview:

THE MIRROR

  • Israel: Rohani's 60-day ultimatum to the Europeans caused little surprise in Israel. The government in Jerusalem has been warning for years that Tehran is not a negotiating partner, but must be branded a pariah of the world community. According to Israeli TV journalist Barak Ravid, Israeli intelligence agencies recently warned their US counterparts against Iranian attacks on American institutions. Israel has been sabotaging the Iranian nuclear program for years, for example by deliberately killing nuclear scientists or infecting the control systems of several nuclear facilities with the malicious program Stuxnet.
  • Gaza Strip: Iran is also actively involved in the Middle East conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Only last weekend, Gaza-ruling Hamas and the even more militant Islamic Jihad group fired nearly 700 rockets at Israel. The Islamic Jihad emerged in the late 1970s - after the Islamic Revolution in Iran - from the local branch of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, the godfather of Hamas. Since then, Islamic jihad has been considered an extension of Tehran.

    In order to weaken the archenemy Israel, the Shiite Iranian state of Iran supports the Sunni extremists whose headquarters are in Damascus. Although a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians has been in force for a few days, a spokesman for the Islamic Jihad warned shortly before the start of the ceasefire: "Do not dream of peace as long as the Palestinian people have to pay the price."

SAID KHATIB / AFP

Fighter of the Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip

  • Red Sea: Here, too, Iran and Israel are indirectly involved in a major conflict. The Red Sea connects the Indian Ocean with the Mediterranean, and for international merchant shipping, the waters between Africa and Asia are of outstanding geostrategic importance. The Iran-sponsored Huthi militia in Yemen attacked two ships near the Bab al-Mandab strait last summer. Saudi Arabia then considered temporarily suspending oil transports in the future.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country would, if necessary, militarily oppose Iran's closure of the bottleneck. Israel has formed an unofficial alliance with the Sunni states of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, which are massively opposing Iran in the Red Sea.
  • Iraq: In terms of regional policy, Iran was the largest beneficiary of the US-led Iraq invasion of 2003. Since then, Baghdad has been dominated by Shiite-dominated governments that are friendly to Tehran. For years, the US and Iran even tacitly pacted against the terrorist militia "Islamic State" (IS). The US bombed the jihadists' positions from the air, while Shiite militias commanded by Iran advanced on the ground. Although these formidable associations are now formally under the control of the government in Baghdad - de facto controlled by Tehran.

    In addition, the pro-Iranian militias, like Hezbollah in Lebanon, have established themselves in the political system. The list of Tehran-backed militia leader Hadi al-Amiri was second strongest in the 2018 parliamentary election. At the same time, however, the US still has more than 5,000 troops stationed in Iraq. In the past few weeks, the United States has intensified its efforts to retain the Iraqi leadership - the most recent sign of which was US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's lightning this week in Baghdad.
  • Syria: Iran has been a close ally of the regime in Damascus for decades. The US, Israel and their Arab allies have come to terms with Bashar al-Assad remaining in power. However, they are concerned that the civil war country is increasingly becoming a staging area for Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Israel is engaged in a shadow war with the Islamic Republic in Syria. In recent years, the Israeli army has attacked hundreds of Iranian targets in the civil war country. Only in January did Israel issue a map claiming that Iran now has ten bases in Syria.
  • Lebanon: Iran is allied with the Shiite Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. The group, founded in the 1980s by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards after the Israeli invasion of the cedar state, now operates in parts of the country as a state in the state. In Jerusalem, it is said that Hezbollah, with Iranian help, has stationed more than 100,000 short- and medium-range missiles in Lebanon, targeting Israel. Since the July 2006 war, it has been quiet along the Lebanese-Israeli border - partly because the militia is wracking in the Syrian war to keep its ally Assad in power. In addition, Hezbollah has established itself in recent decades as a political force in Beirut and is represented with two ministers in the Cabinet of the United States and Saudi Arabia-backed Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

AL-MANAR TV GRAB HANDOUT / EPA-EFE / REX

Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah: Resting on the border with Israel

  • Yemen: Iran-backed Houthi rebels have been controlling the capital, Sana'a, and large parts of Yemen for nearly five years. A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia has been trying since 2015 to drive the Shiite rebels out of power with modest success. The Houthis associated with Shi'ite Islam, for their part, have repeatedly fired missiles designed by Iran into Riyadh and other Saudi Arabian cities. This war has so far cost more than ten thousand civilians the lives.

    The US has reduced its military support for the Saudis for a few months due to the affair surrounding the murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Basically, however, Washington shares the goal with Riyadh to prevent the emergence of an Iranian bridgehead in the Arabian Peninsula.