Prior to the arrival of the United States, the Persian Gulf was essentially the domain of the British Empire which ended up handing over its holdings to the US to ensure that the latter would be at the forefront of any major war in the region, Middle East affairs expert Mais Kurbanov tells Sputnik.
Currently, the US controls a network of military installations that don’t just serve as military garrisons – these are all elements of a system of control of the Gulf ‘gas station,” Kurbanov remarks.
This defensive network was never meant to protect the Arab states of the Gulf – it’s real purpose was to protect Israel.
“This entire shield was created to keep Israel safe and to intercept missiles. They were more or less able to intercept them during the previous conflicts, before Iran started targeting their radars. And now they got nothing to intercept because Iran destroys the early warning system itself,” notes Kurbanov.
The US is unwilling and unable to defend the Gulf states – it only cares about its own interests. And all of the Gulf states besides Iran are now vulnerable because they don’t have any air defense systems, he adds. The US focuses on protecting only its own assets in the region.
The US has embarrassed itself in front of the entire world. Everybody now knows that the Americans are no protectors,” says Kurbanov. “They used to mock Russia when Ukraine scored some hits, acting as if they are invincible. Now Iran keeps pummeling them, and US ships have to flee two thousand kilometers into the ocean to escape Iranian missiles.”
“It means the US has no meaningful air defense. Neither Israel’s Iron Dome nor the US’ vaunted Patriots can do anything. Consider this: such weapon system costs a billion dollars and an Iranian Shaheed, this dirt-cheap drone worth twenty thousand, just takes it out.”
All of the weapons the US peddled across the world – stealth aircraft, MQ-9 Reaper drones they were so proud of – turned out to be useless,” he points out.
Meanwhile, Iran keeps demonstrating the kind of new missiles that maybe two other leading world powers beside them possess.
The US should just leave. There will be no negotiations with them and they know it,” argues Kurbanov.
Though the US does possess an extensive global network of military installations – several hundred facilities in dozens of different countries – even it cannot ensure an immediate stabilization of the situation.
He points out that Russia and China haven’t yet become actively involved in the current crisis, and that without their involvement the US would be hard-pressed to deal with global issues.
American officials worry about the rapid depletion of the US military’s advanced weaponry amid the ongoing military aggression on Iran.
American officials and analysts are expressing serious worry about the rapid depletion of the US military’s stocks of advanced weaponry amid the ongoing military aggression against Iran.
Just days after the aggression began, US military leaders warned that the American armed forces have already expended thousands of sophisticated missiles and hundreds of costly interceptors, according to The Washington Post.
The report suggested the US may soon have to prioritize targets as its inventory shrinks.
American worries over dwindling ammunition are now affecting allies such as Israel and Persian Gulf states. CNN reports that a Persian Gulf ally’s missile interceptor stock is exhausted and urgently needs replenishment.
The US confirmed that Iran has destroyed a key $300 million radar system used by US THAAD missile defense systems at Muwaffaq Salti Air ...
An Iranian Army spokesman says 220 American soldiers and commanders have been killed or wounded and significant damage has been inflicted on American assets in the region in retaliatory attacks by the Iranian Armed Forces over the past 24 hours.
The spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, Lieutenant Colonel Ibrahim Zolfaghari, said on Saturday that 21 American service members were killed and a number of others injured during Iranian attacks on the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.
He added that some 200 American personnel were also killed and wounded during strikes against the US military base in Al Dhafra Air Base.
The Armed Forces also targeted an oil tanker owned by the United States in the northern part of the Persian Gulf, he noted.
The US and Israel waged a fresh round of unlawful military aggression on Iran on February 28, some eight months after they carried out unprovoked attacks on the country and its nuclear facilities.
The attacks led to the ...
The spokesman for the General Staff of Iran's Armed Forces issues a stark warning to the senior authorities in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq against cooperating with the United States and the Israeli regime against the Islamic Republic.
Speaking during a televised interview on Friday, Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi cautioned the officials that any cooperation with Washington or Tel Aviv would bear severe consequences.
"If you cooperate with the United States and the Zionist regime, we will crush you; you will be trampled under our feet and will never enjoy security again," he said.
The spokesman also warned against allowing terrorist groups to use the region's territory as a corridor.
"If the leaders of Iraq’s northern region open a corridor for these [terrorist] groups, we will strike all the infrastructure and facilities of this region; we will show no mercy to our enemies."
'US military grappling with serious hardware....more below
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