Former UK diplomat to Iran on Iran-West tensions

Описание: (16 May 2019) A former British diplomat to Iran on Thursday said he believes no parties to the ongoing tensions between Iran and the US are "looking for a serious conflict".
Charles Hollis, managing director of the London-based geopolitical risk firm, Falanx Assynt, added that it's unclear from which element within the Iranian government recent alleged attacks could have originated.
Concerns about possible conflict flared after the US dispatched warships and bombers to the region to counter an alleged but unspecified threat from Iran.
There also have been allegations that four oil tankers were sabotaged Sunday off the coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the Houthis, Iran-aligned rebels in Yemen, have claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attack on a Saudi oil pipeline.
The potential threats have had a chain reaction in other countries in the region, where Iran's proxies are players in conflicts in Syria, Yemen and Iraq.
Hollis said that it's clear that recent events are related, and are a response to the US-Iran dispute.
"I've no doubt that the attack Fujairah on the vessels and the drone strike, you know the timing and the locations I think are more than coincidental. I think it's difficult to paint them as just random events", he said.
Fears of escalation have grown out of President Donald Trump's decision last year to withdraw the US from the 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and world powers and impose wide-reaching sanctions, the latest levied as recently as last week, that have crippled Iran's economy.
On Thursday, Saudi Arabia accused Tehran of being behind the Houthi drone strike that shut down a key oil pipeline in the kingdom, and a newspaper close to the palace called for Washington to launch "surgical" strikes on Iran, raising the spectre of escalating tensions as the US boosts its military presence in the Persian Gulf.

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