Closure of strait of Hormuz puts pressure on region’s economies amid growing resentment about conflict started by US and Israel

An eerie quiet hangs over Ras Al Khaimah’s industrial port. Usually a thriving maritime hub of the United Arab Emirates, now ships stand docked and silent. Not far out along the hazy horizon, a backlog of hundreds of tankers have lined up in recent days, halted along a waterway flooded with danger.

Any vessel heading past Ras Al Khaimah out to the Arabian Sea must traverse the world’s most treacherous strip of water for shipping today: the strait of Hormuz. Just over 20 nautical miles from Ras Al Khaimah, two oil tankers heading for the strait were attacked by Iranian missiles this week, one catching fire.

It is one of the many consequences facing Gulf states as they are pulled deeper into a war that they did not start and had diplomatically tried to prevent.

For decades, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Oman have allowed US military bases, infrastructure or access on their soil, and have been among the largest buyers of American weapons and technology. In return, the US has stood as the Gulf’s closest and most significant military partner and protector.

But now, Gulf states have growing concerns over the relationship, analysts say, after Donald Trump was seen to wilfully torpedo peaceful diplomatic negotiations in favour of starting a war in the Middle East.

    • AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@piefed.socialEnglish
      30·
      1 day ago

      Their president has started this war and one of his first moves was to bomb a school full of girls.

      Then he goes saying that they will hit them even harder and allows the nazi jews of israhell to bomb targets that are causing hell to the civilian population.

      You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t share the thought that what you describe will be “unfortunate”.

      • kreskin@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        14 hours ago

        one of his first moves was to bomb a school full of girls.

        a double tap, to kill the girls and then the first responders who came to save the survivors. Thats some straight up israeli level war criminality, but we did it directly this time. I think that is what Israel wanted-- us doing war crimes like they do so the world will have a hard time coming after them for it, and they can blame it all on the US from the start.

          • WanderingThoughts@europe.pubEnglish
            5·
            22 hours ago

            By now, a president must come with a disclaimer. Just like with medicine. “May cause wars. May cause economic collapse. Read full program before voting. Discuss this with your representative.”

            • TrooBloo@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
              2·
              37 minutes ago

              We had that. For fuck’s sake, even The Economist, that capitalist tabloid rag, ran a cover story describing how Trump would ruin the economy, alongside an entire opposing campaign built around how he would ruin everything else that used the Republicans’ own literature as reference. People were warned, people knew, they don’t have any excuses.