Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The United States and Israel must take full responsibility for the rising cost of fuel in many parts of the world, including Uganda, the Iranian Ambassador to Uganda, Majid Saffar, has said. Speaking to Uganda Radio Network in an exclusive interview at the Iranian embassy in Kampala, Saffar said the ongoing war in the Middle East that has led to a spike in the prices of fuel and liquefied natural gas must be exclusively blamed on the United States and Israel, which on February 28 attacked Iran unprovoked.
Iran, since the outbreak of the war last week, has not allowed fuel tankers and ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow stretch between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman in which at least 20% of the world’s oil passes. This has led to an increase in the cost of a barrel of Brent crude oil from about $75 to $110 currently. This has led to spikes in fuel pump prices across many countries in the world. At many fuel stations in Uganda, the prices have increased by about UGX 200.
Economic observers forecast that if the war doesn’t abate, there will be sharp increases in pump prices as reserves start to dry up. Saffar also commiserated with Ugandans who are caught up in the conflagration that has engulfed the entire Middle East. Saffar said Iran maintains a cordial relationship with its neighbour in the Gulf and wouldn’t want to attack it.
However, he maintains that the only reason they have attacked them was that they allowed their territories to be used to attack Iran. He said the attacks on the Gulf countries, where perhaps more than one million Ugandans work, should be read as an attack on the US that maintains military bases in these countries.
In its retaliation, Iran has hit American bases and infrastructure in Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, and Azerbaijan. On the election of the new Supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who is the son of the former Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the US/Israel attack, Saffar said, he will carry on with the agenda of the Islamic revolution seamlessly. He wondered how the United States President Donald Trump could even think that he would have a say in who leads Iran. He said the question of leadership is an exclusive right of the Iranian people.
Saffar said the United States’ thinking that when they attack Iran, people will come out and demonstrate to overthrow their own government has also been defeated. Instead, he said, millions of people are coming out every day to show their dissatisfaction with the destruction that the US/Israel campaign is causing.
Saffar also noted that the military campaign against them is aimed at erasing them as a country, but he said they are going to use everything at their disposal to defend themselves. He said the Iranian people are very supportive of their government, adding that it is not possible to defeat a civilization of 3000 years.
It is still unclear how the US/Israel-Iran war is going to end. Iran says it will not be negotiating with its aggressors any time soon. As the cost-of-living increases, especially in America, pressure is building on Donald Trump to find a way out. Most Americans and indeed most people around the world oppose the war.
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