Apart from the U.S., Tesla’s presence in the Middle East has been expanding in places like Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, and these locations are not too far for Iran to attack, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
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In addition to Tesla, other U.S. corporations such as Google, Meta, Dell, IBM, Cisco, HP, Intel, Oracle, Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, Palantir, General Electric, JPMorgan Chase, Spire Solutions, and Boeing have been deemed targets for the IRGC.
According to a report by Carscoops, the IRGC stated that these corporations are assisting the U.S. in the war against Iran through intelligence operations, artificial intelligence, and communications technology. Consequently, the body has threatened that for every one of its leaders killed in the war, “a U.S. company will be destroyed.” The IRGC said:
“Since the main element in designing and tracking terrorist targets are American and ICT [Information and Communications Technology] and AI companies…from now on, [these] main institutions will be our legitimate targets.
“Companies that actively participate in terrorist designs will face reciprocal action for every targeted assassination.”
Thus, the IRGC has been urging employees working for these corporations in the Middle East to leave their offices. It has also warned civilians living within a 1 km radius of these corporations to move out to a safer location.If the IRGC does fire on any of these corporations, it will likely be met with strong retaliation from the U.S. forces, meaning the war will escalate to a whole new level instead of winding down.
Impact of The War On Fuel Prices
The impact of the war, however, is already being felt by Americans back home, given the significant increase in gas prices.
MotorBiscuit reported how the average gas price in Los Angeles stood at $5.99/gallon on Monday, highlighting an increase of nearly $1.30 in just one month.
Fortunately, residents have an option to fill regular gas for $4.97 a gallon in cash at the Sinclair gas station in East Hollywood, located off of Melrose and Normandy avenues near the 101 Freeway. This is nearly a dollar less than the average price.
A similar trend of rising gas prices was witnessed back in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine, leading to gas prices exceeding the $6 per gallon mark. The record, however, stands at $6.49 per gallon.
Southern California’s average price per gallon has gone up by $1.25 in just four weeks. Notably, average prices outside California are still under $4/gallon.
