Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

661–670 of 673 posts

Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

#661

Post by culi »

hebelehubele wrote: post #58
markvdb wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. A cynic might think a significant part of this half-arsed Iran war was: - make sure fuel prices increase globally - The US economy is relatively well-shielded from the fallout by its own fossil fuel sources, local and in colonies like Venezuela. - export more US fossil fuels, especially to Europe, at inflated prices. US insiders reap the profits. - further kneecap European competitiveness in energy intensive sect…

The US sells oil and refined products to other countries. So a supply crunch would raise prices even there too. Everyday Americans are not getting fuel for cheap.

Yes this is true but the oil companies are amassing a lot of wealth the entire world is now much much more dependent on the US for oil. Giving the US much more economic leverage. Who ever cared about every day Americans?

Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

#662

Post by Ydarbleoj »

acheron wrote: post #629
Ydarbleoj wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to be clear, everything is political - whether you want to acknowledge it or not.

“political” has a meaning, and it’s not “everything”. Words mean things.

Totally, but I didn't say political means everything I said everything is political, which means anything a human does to any extent, tacitly or otherwise, is embedded in a power structure.

Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

#663

Post by mikem170 »

ericmay wrote: post #627
mikem170 wrote: post #622

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know how you got to "Iran probably wasn't following the treaty", when their adhereance to the JCPOA was certified by the U.S. (twice by the Trump administration [0][1]), until Trump wanted to renogiate, withdrawing and re-imposing sanctions in 2018. Everything I found says that the Iranians followed the treaty until they withdrew in 2021. You mentioned military sites... I wondered if the IAEA ever requested a…

I'll have to dig up some sources later, if I don't then consider the point conceded I guess as a way of holding me to it. The other problem of course if the fundamental "need" to have a JCPOA in the first place. Iran can just stop trying to build nuclear weapons and then we don't need these kinds of agreements. They also enriched uranium: "Iran has 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium that is enriched up to 60% pu…

The IAEA also said: "In its May 2025 report, the IAEA noted Iran’s enrichment to 60% purity—beyond JCPOA limits but not prohibited under the NPT itself" [0]

Apparently the Iranians started enriching to that 60% level, and self reporting, in 2021, as leverage in the unsuccessful negotions to bring the JCPOA back into effect to get sanctions dropped.

International politics is what it is - power and self interest. There are those who don't want Iran to have a nuke. Iran has its reasons for wanting that capability. Throw in the crusades and ongoing holy wars, colonialism, oil, authoritarian regimes, propaganda, alliances, greed, etc - it's no wonder this is still a problem. One of many problems in that part of the world.

Ironic that the U.S. got the iranian nucear program started, eh? [1]

[0] https://nuclearwatch.net/2025-09-11/enrichment-under-the-npt...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_program_of_Iran#Origin...

Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

#664

Post by arbitrary_name »

giardini wrote: post #214
lowbloodsugar wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

lol. The orange man is doing more damage to the USA than China could ever do short of actual war. He is destroying the US militarily, economically and politically. They emphatically support his efforts.

IMO it is a good thing that the USA is no longer paying for (among others): - NATO - Maintaining security on the high seas for other than USA shipping, - tariffs imposed by other countries (yes, other countries have been imposing tariffs for decades): https://wjno.iheart.com/content/2025-03-17-qa-how-many-count... The USA can use the money saved for its own citizens (possibly even lowering their taxes!)

it appears that you are not smart enough, or well informed enough, to comment on this.

Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

#665

Post by theplumber »

ericmay wrote: post #628
m4rtink wrote: post #605

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arming all their proxies in the region so they can indisriminately kill people ? Firing balistic missiles and drones on cities ? Atacking civilian ships & killing many sailors just doing their job ?

I know. It was a rhetorical question. I want the person I was replying to, to admit to these non-defensive activities, or admit to their not following the events closely.

I think the rhetorical answer is why should we care if Iran is doing bad stuff around? Is that enough to start a war with Iran?

We don’t care if Trump is doing a deal with criminals to steal oil from Venezuela either so why should the world be so eager to help him steal oil from Iran as well?(and perhaps do a deal with the meanest of them all)

Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

#666

Post by etchalon »

ericmay wrote: post #624
etchalon wrote: post #606

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At no point have I said Iran is a good country doing good things. I have no control of, or say, in how Iran operates. I am a US Citizen who votes in the US and who is concerned with the actions my government takes on my behalf. If Iran shouldn't "need an agreement" not to build nuclear weapons, what exactly is our current aggression seeking to accomplish? How does it end? How do we know its over? When there is no lon…

> At no point have I said Iran is a good country doing good things. I didn't say you did. I'm just focused on their wrongdoings and I'm not interested in some accident that the US was involved in. We accidentally blew something up? Dang that sucks. Let's talk about how awful Iran is instead and focus on that because that's what matters. > I have no control of, or say, in how Iran operates. What does that matter? You…

We didn't accidentally blow something up.

Our military murdered 170 children due to incompetence.

I am aware of Iran's activities. Everyone is. The regime is murderous, and hostile to our allies in the region.

And absolutely nothing we are doing, right now, has changed or will change that.

Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

#667

Post by arbitrary_name »

somenameforme wrote: post #147
ak_111 wrote: post #129

This war started as a regime change operation in Iran, one of the shakiest regimes in the world pre-war, but ironically the war might end up with most of the nations who supported the war (either vocally or quietly) "regime changed" (loosely defined), including Israel, US, some European countries and now possibly some Gulf nations, awhile the Iranian regime seem to have tightened its grip more than ever. Yet MAGA sup…

Do you even realize that one of the only reason anybody still supports this war is precisely because of comments like yours? By dividing people into teams, and antagonizing them, you result in people never willing to stomach giving an inch and doubling down on stupid. Obviously this war has been the US' latest great failure, and at the beckoning of a foreign power which makes it especially catastrophic. If people cou…

> Do you even realize that one of the only reason anybody still supports this war is precisely because of comments like yours

that seems like a moronic reason to support a moronic war.

Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

#668

Post by shawnz »

petesergeant wrote: post #51
shawnz wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really a different meaning? Isn't the implication that they tried, and failed, to independently verify the claim?

No, it's a statement of who is making the claim.

I understand that ostensibly it is a statement of who is making the claim. But doesn't the media organization have an expectation to research and validate such claims? And so if they didn't, then that must mean that they weren't able to?

Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

#669

Post by prmoustache »

kryogen1c wrote: post #381
bpodgursky wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think the chain of command looks like in the third world? Even in the Russia/Ukraine conflict they use Telegram for basic operations. All chat applications are dual-use.

> What do you think the chain of command looks like in the third world? I have no idea, but Im certain that twitter recordings do not put frontline forces in disarray. > use Telegram for basic operations an encrypted private communication channel is very different than public social media

Last time I checked, group chats in Telegram weren't e2ee.

Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

#670

Post by ericmay »

autoexec wrote: post #641
ericmay wrote: post #615

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's just standard treatment can you name the other countries where they agreed to the rules, didn't follow them, and then wanted a specific treaty in order to keep them following the rules? Why not just not have a treaty and they just follow the rules? I think you're jumping through some hoops here to justify the need for the JCPOA when at the end of the day Iran needs to simply acquiesce to the international com…

> can you name the other countries where they agreed to the rules, didn't follow them, and then wanted a specific treaty in order to keep them following the rules? First, keep in mind that Iran is very different today from when they signed that treaty. It was signed before the Iranian Revolution. A lot happened between the signing and when Iran approached the international community. By comparison, North Korea violat…

> Iran also didn't even want to "just keep following the rules". They accepted extra rules because at that point other countries didn't trust them. We don't monitor other countries like we did with Iran under the JCPOA. Iran wasn't demanding that we give them a bunch of free stuff either. They wanted sanctions lifted, but not even all the sanctions Iran wanted lifted were agreed to.

I don’t want to go in circles here so I’ll pull this piece out because it’s the crux of the issue. Iran should not pursue the development of nuclear weapons. There is no need for a treaty or special treatment. They should simply not do it. That’s it. We don’t need to have a pretty good agreement. They just don’t do the action. The world distrusts them because they’re earned that distrust.

Post reply on HN