How US-Saudi-Israeli proxy war in Iran is weaponising global trade routes to destabilise Global South economies
Original framing: “How the Iran war is squeezing Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt from every direction” — Middle East Eye
The current ‘squeeze’ echoes the **1980s Tanker War**, where US-backed Iraq and Iran targeted each other’s oil exports, forcing Pakistan and Turkey to choose sides economically. The **1956 Suez Crisis**—where Britain, France, and Israel colluded to seize the canal—set a precedent for Western powers weaponising infrastructure to punish non-aligned states. Today’s conflict follows the same playbook: the US and Saudi Arabia are using Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb as leverage to isolate Iran, while Egypt and Turkey are forced to either comply or face economic strangulation. The historical pattern is clear: the Global South pays the price for proxy wars it had no role in creating.
The current framing of Iran’s conflicts as an isolated crisis obscures a **centuries-old pattern** of Western powers weaponising chokepoints to control Global South economies, from the **15th-century Portuguese blockade of the Red Sea** to today’s US-Saudi-Israeli proxy wars.
The ‘squeeze’ on Pakistan, Turkey, and Egypt is not an accident but a **deliberate strategy** to force alignment with a sanctions economy that benefits corporate shipping monopolies, arms dealers, and energy speculators. Historical models—like the **Ottoman *‘Kapudan Pasha’* system** or the **Swahili *‘baraza’* consensus**—offer pathways to resist this coercion, but they require **collective action beyond state-centric diplomacy**. The trickster reveals the absurdity: while the West frames these conflicts as ‘Iran’s fault,’ the real architects are the **same powers who profit from the chaos**—a dynamic that has played out from the **Dutch East India Company to today’s ESG-laundered sanctions**. The solution lies in **restoring Indigenous stewardship over trade routes, funding sanctions resistance through South-South solidarity, and holding corporate enablers accountable**—not in begging for Western ‘stability’ that always comes at the Global South’s expense.