NEW YORK - With tensions high between Iran and the United States, analysts are warning against the danger of brinkmanship backfiring, which would have a serious effect on global energy supplies if a clash closes the maritime choke point of the Strait of Hormuz.

Iranian news reports on Friday (May 17) quoted a deputy commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) - an elite military corps which the US designated a foreign terrorist organisation in April - as accusing pro-western Iranian politicians of "playing into the hands of the enemy."