Beyond Missiles: How Israel and the US Dismantle the China-Iran Energy Axis

By: Ricardo Abud

We are witnessing something unprecedented in the Middle East. Israel and Iran are exchanging attacks on the fifth day of conflict, but this is not just another escalation. It is a war of specific strategic objectives with global implications that go far beyond the region.

What's happening is no coincidence. Israel has attacked the Shahran reservoir, where firefighters are still struggling to control the flames, and also struck a major oil depot near Tehran. These aren't random tactical decisions: they are surgical strikes designed to dismantle the most ambitious energy project Iran and China have ever built together.

The flames consuming the Shahran oil port in Iran today are not just fire. They are symbols. They are a warning. And they are also the echo of a war that is not fought solely with missiles or in diplomatic conferences, but on pipelines, refineries, railways, and the secret maps of power.

Shahran, more than a port, is a vital artery for Iranian crude oil. It's where the Persian state consolidates much of its energy infrastructure. Attacking this heartland isn't just suffocating Iran: it's striking a network of interests that connects China, Russia, and the global south. It's dynamiting an alternative axis to the one dominated by the United States for decades.

China had patiently built a direct rail route to Iran to transport oil and gas without relying on the vulnerable waters of the Strait of Hormuz. It was a bold, even elegant move: a land corridor that avoided the naval chess game dominated by the US fleet. Today, that gamble is shaky. Because if Iran cannot guarantee supplies even within its territory, then neither a railroad nor any promises are enough. And China, albeit with oriental discretion, watches with growing unease.

Who benefits from all this? Who benefits from the scarcity of oil, the rising prices of gas, the fact that energy is once again becoming a weapon? All eyes are on Israel, whose relationship with Iran has for years been a story of cross-threats. But the pressure, many analysts say, comes from the United States. For Washington, curbing Iran also means curbing China. Because in a world where energy flows through routes not controlled by the West, the global balance is beginning to shift.

When we see images of flames consuming the Shahran oil facilities, we are not just seeing a military attack. We are witnessing the deliberate disruption of the energy backbone that connects China to Iran's resources . This port handles 85% of Iran's maritime trade and is the crucial departure point for oil exports to the Asian giant.

Israeli missiles attacked two energy facilities in southern Iran, including the South Pars gas field off the coast of southern Bushehr province, the world's largest gas field. The precision of these attacks is no coincidence: Israel is specifically targeting the infrastructure that enables the flow of energy to China.

China had completed this direct rail route from China to Iran to transport goods by rail and avoid the vulnerability of maritime transport that the United States could block. Now, with the attacks on Iran's energy infrastructure, that strategy is crumbling.

The timing of these attacks is no accident. Just when China and Iran had managed to establish:

• Alternative land routes that avoided US naval control.
• 25-year trade agreements for $400 billion.
• Payment systems that evaded Western sanctions.
• Logistics infrastructure that reduced transit times from 40 to 15 days.
• Israel, with US backing, is systematically dismantling each of these pillars

For Beijing, what's happening in Iran represents an existential threat to its energy diversification strategy. China cannot afford to rely exclusively on shipping lanes controlled by the US Navy, especially when tensions in the Taiwan Strait could escalate at any moment.

Beijing's Strategic Dilemmas

• To intervene or not to intervene? China is torn between protecting its Iranian investment and avoiding direct confrontation with Israel and the United States.
• Energy alternatives: The crisis forces Beijing to reconsider its dependence on discounted Iranian oil.
• Regional credibility: If China can't protect its main energy partner in the Middle East, what does that say about its global ambitions?

For Iran, this war represents a direct attack on its economic survival. The death toll since the start of the Israeli attacks has risen to 224, with more than 1,200 injured, 90% of whom are civilians. But beyond the human cost, there is the strategic cost.

The Iranian Dilemma

• Iran finds itself in an impossible position:
• If you don't respond, you lose regional and domestic credibility.
• If it responds proportionally, it gives Israel the justification for further escalation.
• If you seek to engage China directly, you risk losing your only viable economic partner.

The brilliance, or perhaps the "diabolical brilliance," of this strategy lies in the fact that it allows the United States and Israel to achieve two objectives simultaneously:

Contain China

• Deprive Beijing of access to cheap energy resources.
• Forcing China to rely on US-controlled shipping routes.
• Demonstrate that Chinese investments in "hostile" regions are not safe.

Isolate Iran

• Destroy the energy infrastructure that generates foreign currency for Tehran.
• Eliminate the economic escape valve that China represented.
• Forcing Iran to negotiate from a position of extreme weakness.

Those who pay: "the foolish Europeans" are suffering the consequences of this energy war. Oil prices jumped on Friday and closed $7 higher, while oil prices rose more than 4% on Tuesday.

Europe is paying the price for a geopolitical war in which it is not a protagonist, but a victim. While Macron and the European elite "talk nonsense," European consumers face:

• Energy prices soar.
• Renewed inflation.
• Increased energy dependence on traditional suppliers.
• Extreme geopolitical vulnerability.

What we're seeing goes beyond a regional war. It's the violent reconfiguration of the global energy order . Markets have largely ignored the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the Israel-Hamas war. But Israel's conflict with Iran is still in its early days.

The consequences are several, one could point out:

• Financial markets: Global stock markets fell and oil prices soared.
• Supply chains: Alternative China-Iran routes become unviable.
• Strategic alliances: The China-Iran-Russia axis faces its first existential crisis.
• Multipolar order: The project of a multipolar world receives a devastating blow.

Meanwhile, in Europe, governments are reacting late and poorly. Caught between energy dependence, strategic obedience to the US, and an increasingly obscure discourse on rights, European citizens are footing the bill. Literally. Gas is getting more expensive. Gasoline is going up. And the question few dare to ask is whether they aren't pawns in a game they don't fully understand.

This isn't a conflict between good and evil. It's a struggle for control of the future. And as almost always in history, it's fought on the backs of the people, the workers, the homes that turn on the heat unaware that the fire burning in Shahran also affects them.

This is not a war between Israel and Iran. It's a war for control of the future world energy order. Israel and the United States have calculated that destroying the China-Iran energy axis is worth any regional cost because it preserves Western control over global energy flows.

For China, this crisis represents a defining moment: is it willing to militarily defend its global energy interests or will it retreat to a defensive position? For Iran, it is literally a matter of economic and political survival.

For Europe, it is yet another painful lesson about the cost of not having a truly independent energy policy. While European leaders make diplomatic speeches, their citizens pay skyrocketing energy prices due to a geopolitical war that exposes their complete strategic vulnerability.

The fire in Shahran isn't just burning oil. It's a symbol of a world order in flames, where energy warfare has become the primary battleground for who will control the 21st century.

THERE IS NOTHING MORE EXCLUSIVE THAN BEING POOR

Note:   The centers of power in the US, the White House, the Pentagon and the CIA, knew about the attack on Iran,   The Wall Street Journal  ( https://chamosaurio.blogspot.com/2025/06/wsj-trump-aprobo-en-privado-atacar-iran.html)  confirmed it, another curious fact is the  Pizza Index  (https://chamosaurio.blogspot.com/2025/06/el-curioso-indice-que-predijo-en-eeuu.html) which shows that something was happening. The pizza index: It is a curious thermometer that does not appear in official reports, but is well known in the halls of power. What does it consist of? Simple: when there are many nighttime pizza orders to places like the Pentagon, or military command centers, something important is happening. And these days, the pizzerias near those sites could not keep up. Although it may seem trivial, this index has predicted key events in the past: from the operation against Bin Laden to airstrikes in Syria. Today, with the exchange of fire between Tehran and Tel Aviv, the "pizza index" rose sharply.