Military strikes by the United States and Israel on Iran have escalated the level of conflict in an already deeply unstable Middle East region into an all-out war which is now impacting the Gulf as a whole.

The threat of a Third World War has been bandied around by observers, analysts, and the common people alike - and while we, thankfully, aren't at that point, it is clear that even regional conflicts today have global impacts.

Some of the events of the last few days have shown that even a small country such as Malta, thousands of miles away from the conflict zone can be impacted.

An incident where a Russian-flagged tanker - purportedly part of Russia's infamous 'shadow fleet' - carrying liquefied natural gas was hit with a suspected drone strike between Malta and Libya is evidence of this.

The incident happened just outside Maltese waters, starting a fire onboard and later causing the tanker to sink, and while it did not pan out in territory Malta is responsible, it has still thrust Malta into international headlines and what is ultimately an international situation.

Likewise earlier this week, a Malta-flagged cargo ship was hit by two missiles while passing through the Strait of Hormuz. The incident happened just off the coast of Oman amid rapidly escalating tensions in the Gulf.

Malta's maritime registry is among the largest in the world, so it would be reasonable to think that this may not be the last time that there will be an incident like this which involves a vessel which carries a Maltese flag.

This is not to mention other potential issues. It remains to be seen whether the closure of the Strait of Hormuz will have an inflationary impact on the Maltese economy like the start of the war in Ukraine had.

There is certainly an impact in the increase in oil prices, and while the government has committed to keeping prices stable through subsidies, that comes at the consequence of increased spending from the government's coffers, and therefore impacting Malta's budgeting.

Then there are diplomatic matters: Spain has ended up in a political tiff with the United States as it refuses to allow American military bases on its soil to be used for operations related to the war.  This has led to US President Donald Trump threatening a trade cut-off with the country - but that may have an impact on the European Union as a whole, being that the EU first and foremost is a trade bloc.

These are extremely sensitive times in the world of international politics, and it is clear that in this fully-connected world, there are consequences which will reverberate around the globe even if the combat is restricted to one region.

The government has in some ways already had to deal with such consequences when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, but it must again get into gear to deal with the escalations happening in the Middle East and the potential consequences that will be born out of it.

It was disappointing, meanwhile, to see the Opposition resort to a simple piece of misinformation in its discourse about the case on Wednesday. This was as Nationalist Party leader Alex Borg shared that the incident happened in Malta's search and rescue waters when in actual fact it did not. These are small yet significant errors which serve for no good whatsoever.

These are situations where we need political forces to be working together with good will and communication from both sides, and not political bickering.