Iran on Monday showcased a new underground missile base. This comes on the heels of the announcement of advances in their solid fuel ballistic missiles. This new base is meant to support the Iranian Navy:
On Monday, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps unveiled a new underground missile base belonging to its navy, “which includes a large group of ballistic missiles and cruise missiles of different ranges.”
The Revolutionary Guards indicated that “the base is equipped with electronic warfare equipment, and it is capable of launching missiles and naval mines from depths.”
The Iranian Navy routinely harasses shipping that transits the Strait of Hormuz, which is a major shipping channel for for the world’s oil supply. If Iran is able to block the strait, major economies would grind to a halt.
The shipping channels in the passage that can handle supertankers are only two miles wide heading in and out of the Gulf, forcing ships to pass through Iranian and Omani territorial waters.
The amount of oil that passes through the channel is staggering, with roughly 80% of the crude it handles destined for Asia. The global economy could not function without those supplies.
That channel is becoming increasingly important with the hamstrings that the Biden administration is placing on US domestic oil supplies. This only increases the power that the Iranian regime currently has.
The furtherance of the Iranian weapons programs should be stymied by the sanctions that have been put in place. However the US, for unannounced reasons, has recently lobbied South Korea to unfreeze 7 billion dollars of Iranian assets and allow it back into the hostile nation. The Biden State Department has also removed the terrorist designation of the Houthi rebels in Syria. This allows food aid into the country’s territories that are controlled by the Iranian supported militia.
The Biden White House has said that it wants to reenter the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that supposedly hindered the Iranian nuclear program. But as a condition, Iran must start making moves toward the original constraints. Iran says that sanctions have to be removed before they are willing to talk.
While the diplomatic stalemate continues, Iran is working to show the world that it has control of the worlds energy supply. If the US continues offering aid to Iran and its militias in the form of cash and food supplies, the pressure to concede to Washington’s demands will be minimal. It is unclear how these actions are supposed to harm the Islamic regime and force a change in behavior.