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As Iran destroyed energy facilities and infrastructure in all six of its Persian Gulf neighbors and blocks their shipments of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf states — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates — are reevaluating their strategic alliances with the United States. We speak to Yasmine Farouk, the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula project director at the International Crisis Group, about where else the Arab Gulf is looking toward in Asia and Europe to diversify its defense relationships, and what exactly the war has put at risk in the region. "Let's remember the ceasefire came at a moment when energy infrastructures, desalination, power plants, nuclear plants could have been in the crossfire. So what is at stake here is an uncontrolled escalation that everyone, everyone wants to stop."
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The United States and Iran have announced a two-week ceasefire, brokered by Pakistan, under which Iran has agreed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Israel is also part of the agreement, but it has said it will continue its attacks and occupation inside Lebanon. The deal was reached less than two hours before President Trump's 8 p.m. ET deadline Tuesday for Iran to reopen the strait under threat of destroying every power plant and major bridge in Iran.
Although both parties have "strong incentives" to maintain a ceasefire, the deal is "extremely precarious," says Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi, professor of international relations of the Middle East at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. "We're already seeing it being imperiled as we speak, with ongoing attacks in Lebanon, as well as reports of [Iranian] attacks in the Persian Gulf."
We are also joined by Naghmeh Sohrabi, professor of Middle East history at Brandeis University, who has been translating articles from Persian to English by writers inside Iran. Sohrabi speaks to the economic suffering — which had already led to protests in Iran earlier this year — that has been compounded by war. "People are losing their jobs. People are losing their homes. Food prices are going up," she says. "And the question is, even if the ceasefire holds, how they're going to pull this country out of the situation."
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