This is a translation of the original article in Portuguese. Read the original (Português).
Iran has threatened to attack American military bases in Europe and the Middle East if Washington bombs the country again. The warning came from Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, in an interview with the Lebanese channel Al Mayadeen, according to the British newspaper The Independent. The same week, the Revolutionary Guard reported that a tanker had struck a mine in the Strait of Hormuz, according to the British newspaper The i Paper.
According to the British newspaper The Times, Rezaei said European bases from which American aircraft take off would be targets. The Portuguese newspaper Açoriano Oriental reports that the threat included remote areas and islands, and cited the Lajes base in the Azores, a Portuguese archipelago in the middle of the Atlantic.
The Portuguese newspaper Diário de Notícias links the statement to the transfer of American military aircraft to a British base. Meanwhile, the British newspaper Daily Mail reports that U.S. aircraft were removed from the Mildenhall base in England out of fear of drone attacks.
On the American side, the tone was different. President Donald Trump said Iran is militarily finished and that there is a favorable moment to negotiate, according to The i Paper. In an interview with The Independent, he said new attacks are unlikely, but that the United States is ready to respond.
Tehran, for its part, is setting conditions. According to the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph, Iranian officials want an agreement that includes Lebanon and an end to the naval blockade, and intend to keep the enriched uranium they already have.
The blockade is the core of the dispute. The Times reports that, after the American midterm elections, in which the war weighed against Trump, Washington decided to tighten it, and that Iran signals it will respond with missiles and drones against ships. The Daily Telegraph adds that the United States created a task force in Tampa, Florida, to stop Iranian trade by land and through the Caspian Sea, since part of it has been diverted to routes through Turkey and Pakistan.
In the United Kingdom, the response was to strengthen security. British minister Wes Streeting said Rezaei’s remarks amounted to admitting guilt for a plot against the Fairford base and announced £470 million over four years to protect military bases, according to The Times. The Daily Mail reports that elite marines have begun guarding nuclear facilities in Scotland, such as Faslane and Coulport.
The plot against Fairford is the subject of American justice. Prosecutors say a suspect linked to Iran commanded it from inside a prison in New York, using coded messages, and that the target would be B-1 bombers, according to the Daily Mail and the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal. The FBI also added to its most-wanted list a member of the Revolutionary Guard accused of planning the assassination of John Bolton, former U.S. national security adviser, with a reward of US$20 million.
A significant share of the world’s oil passes through Hormuz, and any escalation in the region tends to affect fuel prices, including in Brazil.
Reporting from The Independent (p. 46), The i Paper (p. 29), The Times (p. 5 e p. 28), Açoriano Oriental (p. 32), Diário de Notícias (p. 25), Daily Mail (p. 4), The Daily Telegraph (p. 13), The Wall Street Journal (p. 18).
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