Turkey, Iraq, and Pakistan oppose and are angry at United States demands that they close their borders with Iran as part of a Trump administration decision to lay total siege to their neighbor. Their economies, after all, are integrated, and the livelihoods of many of their peoples depend on trade with Iran.

A Nov. 11 report in the New York Times cited Pakistan’s $3 billion in annual trade with Iran and its reliance on Iranian fuel imports, especially LPG, as an example. In the case of Iraq, in addition to extensive cross-border trade (including smuggling), Iranian gas powers a third of its national electricity grid. When those supplies have been cut in recent years, “often” because U.S. sanctions made it impossible for Iraq to pay Iran, it led to “huge power cuts and street protests,” the Times noted.

“Several of Iran’s neighbors have warned that cutting off trade routes vital to businesses and communities on both sides of the frontier could provoke `civil insurrection,’” one (anonymous) U.S. official told Times reporters. The official added that U.S. pressure is feeding the growing anger against the U.S. among its “allies and partners” in the region.

Dismissive of such realities, the Trump administration nonetheless proceeded to place CENTCOM in charge of Task Force Iron Gate, whose assigned mission is to shut down all land and sea routes into Iran, an insane policy that Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned could lead to a military clash if the U.S. attempts to block trade between Iran and its four Caspian Sea neighbors.