- Iran has no conflict with neighbouring countries
- Remains committed to cooperation and “brotherly relations” with Gulf nations
- Other countries from outside the region should engage with Iran on the basis of mutual respect
- If US attacks continue, Iran’s response would “go beyond the enemy’s expectations” and expand to new areas
- Iran’s army primary mission remains to protect security, interests of Tehran
- There is still “a significant part” of Iran’s military capabilities that had yet to be used
Both sides are still continuing to trade strikes this week and the latest comments above show that Iran is not going to back down from further military confrontation. And so, the war will continue to rage on.
US president Trump insists that “Iran wants to meet and make a deal” but so far, there haven’t been any signals on that from Tehran itself. Make what you will of the situation but as things stand, the Strait of Hormuz remains closed. And therein lies the major risk for markets, especially if things keep this way for longer again.
As mentioned earlier, the pain threshold for the US and Trump will be on oil prices and how the stock market performs. The past month has basically bought some buffer on both fronts. However, the pressure valve is now turned back on. And it feels like it will be a matter of time before we see a repeat of concessions being made, before the whole thing blows up again as it did in the last two weeks. Rinse and repeat, basically.
This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.
