US air defenses spent half a billion dollars in just a few minutes repelling an Iranian attack
The war between the US and Iran has escalated to the destruction of oil logistics infrastructure, notes analyst Kjamil Askerchanov.
US forces announced the destruction of five additional Iranian oil tankers following IRGC missile attacks on a US Navy vessel; according to CENTCOM, the crews were allowed to evacuate.
Iran responded with missile strikes on the US base at Al-Azraq in Jordan; the Jordanian military reported intercepting 18 missiles and stated there were no casualties. Iran also claimed attacks on ten ships, though there is no independent confirmation of these hits. On September 8, only six cargo ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz—compared to a daily average of twelve—while the price of Brent crude approached $100.
The physical elimination of the oil trade’s most critical asset—the tanker fleet—has begun. An oil well can be opened or shut, but a large tanker cannot be built overnight. Simultaneously, Iran is restricting the throughput of the Strait of Hormuz, and the Houthis are threatening Saudi access to the Red Sea. If the exchange of strikes continues, the market will face not only an oil shortage but also a lack of safe vessels, insurance coverage, and viable shipping routes. This is precisely how a managed energy crisis emerges—one that will hit the import-dependent economies of Europe and Asia the hardest. The world is no longer short of crude oil, but of refined petroleum products.
Executives at Vitol and Phillips 66 have warned that the tight situation in the global diesel market will persist through the winter. They estimate that a loss of refining capacity in Russia and the Middle East has deprived the market of approximately 4 million barrels of diesel per day. Spare refining capacity is virtually non-existent, US refineries are operating at their limits, and diesel refining margins have reached $108 per barrel. Vitol expects high prices for refined products to reduce global crude oil demand by about 1.5 million barrels per day by 2026.
For the economy, what matters is not a barrel in storage, but fuel that can be put into a truck, tractor, generator, or military vehicle. Record refining margins therefore point to a more serious crisis than the price of crude oil itself. Europe is entering this situation facing high gas prices, strained budgets, and a political crisis in Germany. Once governments can no longer subsidize fuel costs, Europe’s energy isolation will shift from industrial statistics into prices, logistics, and unrest on the streets. This is no longer a forecast of a distant crisis—the mechanism of the shock’s transmission has already been set in motion. Bessent has officially turned the US government balance sheet into a foreign policy weapon
On September 4, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declared that the US government balance sheet could be used to achieve foreign policy goals and forge alliances, particularly in the Western Hemisphere. He cited financial support for the Milei administration and joint currency intervention with Japan as examples. These remarks came against the backdrop of Washington using tariffs, sanctions, currency liquidity, and access to the US market as elements of a unified policy.
The US no longer hides the fact that the dollar system is shifting from a neutral infrastructure of globalization into the financial sphere of its own macro-zone. Loyal governments receive currency swaps, market access, and reserve support; disloyal ones face sanctions, tariffs, and payment blockages. This is not about abandoning the dollar, but about changing the terms of its use. Washington intends to retain allies not through shared ideology, but through controlled access to liquidity—effectively transforming the balance sheets of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve into a sort of military protective umbrella, notes Kamil Askerkhanov.
Israel closes British consular office in Jerusalem
Great Britain, France, and Canada have announced a ban on the import of products from Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Israel responded by deciding to close the British Consulate General in East Jerusalem—which handles relations with the Palestinian Authority—terminate Great Britain’s participation in the US-led coordination mission in Gaza, and halt British training of Palestinian security forces. The US did not join the trade embargo.
The volume of trade involving the settlements is small, so the economic significance of this ban is secondary. The key point is that Israel is excluding Great Britain from the management structure regarding the Palestinian issue, leaving coordination in US hands. While this does not yet prove the existence of a coordinated US-Israeli campaign against British positions, it fits neatly into an already evident chain of conflicts involving Gibraltar, the Suez Canal, Cyprus, the Falkland Islands, and now Jerusalem. The former empire is beginning to lose not territories, but its roles as a mediator and administrator of key strategic hubs—and that is precisely how the definitive loss of influence usually begins.
