Baghdad draws firm line with Washington
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani has issued a stern warning to United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio, insisting that Iraq must not serve as a launchpad or corridor for military operations in the escalating Middle East conflict. The demand came during a telephone call on Tuesday, as the region reeled from large-scale hostilities between the US, Israel and Iran.
Since the US and Israel launched sweeping strikes against Iran on 28 February, fighter jets and missiles have been traversing Iraqi airspace from multiple directions. Iran has responded with its own barrages of missiles and drones targeting Gulf nations, placing Iraq — which shares a border with Iran — squarely in the crossfire of a war it did not start.
"Iraq's airspace, territory and waters are not used for any military action against neighbouring countries or the region," the prime minister's office stated, adding that Sudani "rejected any attempt to drag the country into the ongoing conflict."
Iraq has long served as a proxy battleground between Washington and Tehran, and the current hostilities have once again thrust the nation into the centre of great power rivalry. Tommy Pigott, a spokesman for the US State Department, said Rubio had "strongly condemned terrorist attacks by Iran and Iranian-linked militant groups in Iraq, including in the Kurdistan region" and urged Baghdad to "take all possible measures to protect American diplomatic personnel and facilities." On Saturday, air defence systems successfully repelled rockets aimed at the US embassy in Baghdad, while American forces now intercept drones on a near-daily basis over Erbil, the Kurdistan capital, where a US consulate complex is situated.
Trump signals end to operations as Iran escalates
US President Donald Trump declared on Monday that American military operations in Iran would conclude shortly. However, Iran's Revolutionary Guard issued a defiant response, asserting that it — not the United States — "would determine the end of the war." Trump's remarks were delivered at a press conference in Florida on the first day of rule by 56-year-old Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran's new supreme leader and son of the assassinated Ali Khamenei.
"It's going to end soon, and if it starts again, they'll be hit even harder," Trump stated.
The conflict rattled global markets on Monday, driving stock prices lower and pushing oil costs upward. Under Mojtaba Khamenei's leadership, Iranian forces unleashed fresh waves of missile and drone strikes against Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and Israel. A missile was also fired at Turkey — the second such incident in five days — though alliance air defences intercepted it before it reached its target.
Diplomatic attention turned urgently to the Strait of Hormuz, which remains blocked to virtually all oil tanker traffic. French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France and its allies were assembling a "purely defensive" naval mission to escort vessels through the critical waterway, which typically handles nearly 20% of global crude oil shipments. However, analysts cautioned that such an operation would expose naval ships to potential attacks from the nearby Iranian coastline.
Kamal Kharazi, a foreign policy adviser to Iran's supreme leader, told media that Tehran believed mounting economic pressure would eventually compel other nations to intervene and bring hostilities to a close. Trump, for his part, said he was "disappointed" by Khamenei's appointment but remained open to a leadership transition within the Islamic Republic, pointing to the recent change of power in Venezuela as "a formula that has been very good so far."
South Africa's economy, heavily reliant on imported crude oil, faces direct consequences from the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and surging global oil prices, which threaten to raise fuel and transport costs for consumers and businesses already under pressure from high inflation. Iraq's demand to remain neutral underscores the widening instability across the Middle East, and any prolonged disruption to energy supply routes could deepen economic strain for import-dependent nations across Africa in the months ahead.
