Iran’s real weapon is the world economy
Missiles, drones, mining threats and selective maritime disruption can be enough to make insurers, traders, shipowners and governments reprice risk
Add BT as a preferred source
WHEN the White House confirmed that US President Donald Trump would travel to Beijing on May 14 to 15 after postponing the trip because of the Iran war, it revealed that this conflict is now large enough to disrupt the calendars of great powers, distort global markets and force governments far from the Gulf to think in terms of energy security, inflation and supply-chain resilience.
The central question is no longer whether Iran can defeat the US or Israel conventionally. It is whether Iran can make the economic price of continuing the war too high, too global and too prolonged to ignore.
Iran’s strategy is calibrated economic coercion. Teheran is exploiting a rare combination of geography, target concentration and asymmetric tools.
Decoding Asia newsletter: your guide to navigating Asia in a new global order. Sign up here to get Decoding Asia newsletter. Delivered to your inbox. Free.
Copyright SPH Media. All rights reserved.
