From the Failure of Military Objectives to the Expansion of Economic Pressure
Iron Gate must be assessed within the framework of the broader developments of America’s confrontation with Iran. When military tools cannot realize the desired political objectives, expanding economic pressure and restricting supply and trade routes becomes one of the alternative options.
From this perspective, the announcement of the formation of the new task force can be considered a sign of Washington’s effort to compensate for the limitations of military tools and to transfer a larger part of the confrontation to the realm of economics, trade, and logistics. However, “Iron Gate” also faces the same obstacle that many of America’s maximum pressure policies have faced: the gap between the ability to exert pressure and the possibility of converting it into a political and strategic result.
A Plan with Objectives Larger Than Its Executive Capacity
Ultimately, the formation of the Iron Gate task force should not be equated with a complete land and sea blockade of Iran. This plan may be able to create restrictions on certain sensitive cargoes, intermediary companies, and specific trade routes and increase the cost of Iran’s transactions; but turning it into a mechanism for controlling all of Iran’s borders faces serious geographical, legal, economic, and political obstacles.
To succeed in this mission, America must not only identify an extensive network of Iran’s trade routes, but also obtain the satisfaction and sustained cooperation of neighboring countries; a matter for which there is no guarantee of realization.
For this reason, the claim of a complete blockade of Iran through “Iron Gate” is not compatible with the geographical and geopolitical realities of the region. This plan, even if it can disrupt part of Iran’s transactions, will not by itself be able to create a comprehensive blockade. Iron Gate, rather than being an operational strategy for closing all of Iran’s routes, is a new attempt to compensate for the limitations of America’s military and naval pressure; an attempt whose most important obstacle will be the gap between Washington’s ambitions and the realities of the region.
MNA
