U.S. puts two military bases in the Middle East on alert after Iranian missile launch

Two U.S. military bases in the Middle East have activated the highest alert after the Islamic Republic of Iran launched three missiles that ended up falling into the sea in a location very close to the U.S. Army's infrastructure. 

Various US media confirmed that the establishment of the alert occurred after "intelligence indicators showed that an Iranian missile was possibly headed there". 

The latest information released so far states that there has been no impact, but it was confirmed that three Iranian missiles "sank in waters near the bases as part of Iran's military exercises" and that they fell "close enough" to cause concern. 

The U.S. Army's Central Command in the region has verified the reports, so these incidents have again put regional and global security at risk. 

Recently, Iran has already moved a model aircraft carrier to the Strait of Hormuz amid growing tensions between the two countries. In this line, the United States denounced the "destructive activities" perpetrated by the Islamic Republic to "destabilize the region". Tehran could have used this simulation to carry out live-fire exercises, as suggested by satellite photos published on Monday.

One of the images taken by the Space Technology Corporation (Maxar Technologies), a US-based company, showed a ship moving towards the US model aircraft carrier located on this strategic waterway, according to information accessed by the digital Al-Arab. 

This continues the escalation of tension that has been installed for many years between Washington and Tehran. A diplomatic clash that was recently reinforced by the political and economic sanctions imposed in 2018 by the US government of Donald Trump on the Iranian state after it denounced the failure to comply with the nuclear pact sealed in 2015 (JCPOA) that limited the Persian atomic programme, especially in terms of weapons. An agreement that was signed by both parties in 2015 together with other powers such as Germany, France, United Kingdom, China and Russia, and that remains in force despite the departure of the American giant. 

After the imposition of this embargo, which affects above all oil (the main source of Iranian financing), the president of Iran, Hassan Rohani, responded by threatening to continue trading with his crude oil, to blockade the Straits of Ormuz (the main passage zone for world oil trade) and to not respect various terms of the JCPOA, especially those referring to uranium enrichment and the treatment of heavy water. 

In this scenario, there were incidents related to cargo ships in Gulf waters and attacks to oil and airport infrastructures in the territory of Saudi Arabia, the main regional enemy of Iran and a great representative of the Sunni branch of Islam, as opposed to the Shiite one sponsored by the regime of the Ayatollahs. 

Iran was accused of being behind these events and of supporting related Shiite groups to meddle in the internal affairs of neighbouring countries, which increases instability in the area. In this sense, the work of the Quds Forces (international division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, an elite body of the Iranian Army) to cooperate with allied Shiite organizations in order to satisfy their own interests is well known. This is the case of Lebanon, with the Hezbollah militias; Palestine, with the Hamas guerrillas; Yemen, with the Hutu rebels fighting in the civil war against the legitimate government; Syria, with the militias of Afghan origin of Liwa Fatemiyoun; or Iraq, through the People's Mobilization Forces.

Moreover, according to various analysts, Iran is working closely with other countries that are in the eye of the storm because of their belligerent stance at the international level, such as Turkey and Qatar. These are partners that the Iranian nation approached in order to improve its financial situation after the sanctions imposed by the United States. The Eurasian country presided over by Recep Tayyip Erdogan participates actively in the civil wars in Libya and Syria, even contributing mercenaries to salaries assigned to groups linked in the past to terrorist organisations such as Daesh or Al-Qaeda, in order to improve its geostrategic position and to obtain economic benefits in the exploitation of areas of the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, the Gulf monarchy suffers another embargo decreed in 2017 by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain, nations that accuse the Qatari state of supporting cross-border terrorism and of close ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization classified as terrorist by several Western countries.