Dr Tobias Borck

Tensions between the United States and Iran have led to speculation that armed troops could be placed on ships to prevent boarding by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Some believe the United States would have to place troops on American vessels as a form of protection against Iran. Senior Research Fellow Middle East Security at the Royal United Services Institute, Tobias Borck said: "It would be quiet a significant step for the moment at least, and I would remain sceptical that we would eventually see this potential of putting US troops in harm's ways. But what happens when Iran does approach a commercial ship and has US troops onboard? That could really be a flash point for conflict."

The timing of the release suggests Western powers are hardening their stance on Iran, said Tobias Borck, a research fellow for Middle East security studies at the Royal United Services Institute. ...“We’re headed in a direction where the West writ large, the U.S. and Europe, will identify Iran as a bad actor,″ Borck said. “And the focus has to be on deterring and containing. And so that’s where the policy is headed.”

For many, it’s sequential,” Tobias Borck of the Royal United Services Institute, (RUSI) told The New European, ‘Policymakers feel that, if they can get the nuclear deal done, then they can move on to other things. However, right now, the JCPOA is a bit like Shrodinger’s cat. It might be alive, it might be dead, but no one wants to open the box and check,” Borck said. For the Biden administration, a failure to reinvigorate the deal would mark a crushing policy failure, “For Iran, it’s not much more promising,” Borck continued, “Despite acting with increased belligerence, they know that walking away from the deal risks the full weight of sanctions snapping back. Lastly, looking on, is Europe, which doesn’t really have any alternate policy ideas to the deal.”