An Open Letter to France 24: Revisiting "Both Sides" in the Strait of Hormuz Standoff
To the Editors of France 24, Your recent segment featuring Negah Angha, identified as a former National Security Advisor, on the Strait of Hormuz standoff, presents a problematic analysis. Ms. Angha's assertion that "both sides are testing each other" and that "Iran has been articulating to the US and Western allies the impact and the control that they have on the global economy" perpetuates a
misleading narrative of equal culpability in a deeply asymmetric conflict. This framing, regrettably common in Western media, obscures the fundamental power imbalances and historical aggressions that define US-Iran relations. What your analyst and by extension, France 24, conveniently omit is the enduring US-led economic strangulation of Iran, an act of overt warfare predating any Iranian actions
in the Strait. The US re-imposed sanctions after unilaterally abandoning the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in May 2018, despite Iran's full compliance, as verified by the International Atomic Energy Agency. This act of economic aggression, not some abstract 'testing,' has deliberately crippled Iran's economy, leading to critical shortages of medicine and essential goods, impacting the
daily lives of millions of Iranian civilians. The cost differential between Iran's indigenous, low-cost military responses and the exorbitant expense of maintaining a global US military presence, including carrier strike groups in the region, is vast, pointing to who is truly provoking and who is reacting. The current situation is not a symmetric 'test' but a predictable consequence of prolonged