By Solomon "Customs" Bridges
Half a year ago, missiles flew and the world braced for a wider Middle East war. Six months on, the fighting has settled into something quieter and, in its way, more corrosive: a war of attrition being fought in oil terminals, currency markets and the back rooms of Tehran's leadership, according to Al Jazeera's reporting from the region.
The United States has not toppled Iran's government, and Al Jazeera's own analysis is candid about that fact — Washington has not won the war it set out to fight. But sustained economic pressure is doing something slower and harder to reverse: it is weakening the Iranian state's ability to function, according to the outlet, and testing the country "where it is weakest." That pressure is reportedly sharpening divisions inside Iran's leadership, though the scale and nature of those splits remain difficult to verify from outside.
For the Gulf Arab states watching from across the water, the six-month mark has brought no relief. Al Jazeera reports that the conflict's drift into attrition — with no regime collapse and no clean resolution — is leaving Gulf economies facing growing uncertainty, forcing governments in Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and beyond to hedge their bets on an outcome nobody can yet predict.
None of this is settled history; it is a live, grinding standoff, and the picture here relies substantially on Al Jazeera's own sourcing and framing. What's clear is that the costs are not confined to Iran and the United States. A tanker delayed, a currency devalued, a bank sanctioned — these ripple outward to every port and market that touches the Gulf's oil.
Nothing happens 'over there' anymore.
— Compiled from reporting by Al Jazeera.
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