Articles about Escalation

• US financial markets face 'peak war panic' in 1-3 weeks amid US-Iran conflict entering its third week, with Strait of Hormuz effectively closed and oil prices at risk of hitting $200/bbl in 2026. • S&P 500 is down only 3% year-to-date and 5% from all-time high, indicating investors not yet panicking despite US attacks on Iran's Kharg Island oil terminal and deployment of 2,500 Marines to Mideast. • Escalation includes Iran targeting civilian infrastructure in Gulf neighbors and threatening major ports, potentially spilling over to agricultural commodities and semiconductors via shortages in fertilizer and helium.

Iran’s is trying to create wedges between Gulf states and the US, but Trump is very comfortable on the ‘escalatory ladder’In its current phase, the Israeli-US war against Iran and its proxies has become a proving ground for two competing concepts of military escalation, each of which threatens to become a trap.On one side, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu have failed thus far in their ill-defined and shifting strategic aims. Despite killing Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and other key leaders in the opening salvo of the campaign, the clerical regime remains and Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium is unsecured. Airstrikes are intensifying and hitting a greater number of targets. Continue reading...

A missile struck a helipad inside the US Embassy compound in Baghdad on March 13, 2026, as reported by two security officials, prompting a renewed Level 4 security alert for Iraq due to threats from Iran-aligned militias. The embassy, one of the largest US diplomatic facilities, has faced repeated rocket and drone attacks, with militias recently intensifying strikes on bases hosting US and coalition troops. A separate drone strike in northern Iraq on March 12 killed one French soldier and wounded others in an international coalition force. These incidents underscore rising risks to US personnel as the US-Iran war drags into its third week.