The US–Israel strikes on Iranian cities, including Tehran, were launched despite ongoing diplomatic efforts, prompting Iranian counter-attacks on US bases
Claims that the war is about democracy, women’s rights, or nuclear weapons collapse under scrutiny, given Western alliances with autocratic regimes
The assault reflects a long-standing effort to weaken or dismantle Iran for resisting US dominance and supporting Palestine
The United States and Israel have launched a military attack against Iran.
It is necessary to point out that this is an unprovoked act of aggression against Iran. Iran did not attack the United States of America or Israel. It is the United States of America and Israel that have attacked Iran. There were explosions in several cities of Iran, including the capital city Tehran. The office of the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was one of the targets of the attack by the United States and Israel. On Sunday morning, news reached us that Khamenei has died in the attacks by the United States and Israel.
Iran has every right to defend itself and has carried out retaliatory strikes against US military bases in West Asia, including the Al-Udeid airbase in Qatar, which is the US Central Command headquarters. It is unsurprising that European leaders such as French president Emmanuel Macron, British prime minister Keir Starmer, German chancellor Friedrich Merz, and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen all line up behind the US to place the blame on Iran for the attack carried out by the US and Israel.
Baseless Arguments for War
The arguments that the US-Israel-led axis has advanced in favour of a war against Iran are all baseless.
This attack is not about democracy. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries such as the UAE and Qatar are all autocratic monarchies; and yet the US is not trying to overthrow the regimes in these countries. On the contrary, these countries remain close allies of the US, and host US military bases on their soil.
This is not about women's rights. Saudi Arabia is a country where women’s rights lag behind most other countries, and yet the US is not trying to overthrow the Saudi regime. Tens of thousands of women in Gaza have been killed by Israel, and yet the US is not bombing Tel Aviv. As if such double standards are not enough, missile strikes by US-Israel even targeted a girls' school in Minab in Iran's Hormozgan province, killing more than 100 people.
This is not about nuclear proliferation. Iran does not have nuclear weapons. The fact is that Ayatollah Khamenei himself is on record as having issued a fatwa against Iran acquiring or using nuclear weapons, and Iran has argued for decades that the Middle East should be made a nuclear-free zone. The fact is that the US and its Western allies rejected this argument because they want Israel, which has carried out the first live-streamed genocide in the history of the world, killing over 75,000 people in Gaza, to retain nuclear weapons. The fact is that the US, UK, France, and Israel are sitting on a stockpile of nuclear weapons that is collectively enough to destroy the world many times over.
This is not about Iran being unwilling to negotiate on its nuclear energy program either.This is not about Iran refusing to negotiate on its nuclear energy programme either. Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi had said on Friday in a CBS interview that "a peace deal is within our reach", and that Iran had agreed to "down blend" its current stockpiles of nuclear material to "the lowest level possible" and convert it into fuel which will be irreversible. (Oman had mediated the recent talks in Geneva between the US and Iran.) But that did not stop the US and Israel from attacking Iran, because all talk about the danger of Iran developing nuclear weapons was just a ruse.
US-Israel Animosity Towards Iran
The US's animosity against Iran goes back to 1979, when the Iranian Revolution overthrew the authoritarian rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the US-backed Shah (king) of Iran. The Shah had come to power after a CIA-orchestrated coup in 1953 deposed Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh for daring to nationalise the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
Iran has remained a staunch ally of the Palestinian national liberation movement, which has greatly antagonised the Israeli regime, which is the US's closest ally, imperial outpost, and gendarme in the region. While the Israeli regime has sought a change in the Iranian regime for decades, it has sought more than that.
The statement by an Israeli official that "we are targeting the entire Iranian leadership, political and military, past, present, and future", and the statement by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "the Persians, Kurds, Azeris, Baloch, and Ahwazis" of Iran that they should overthrow the Iranian state, were mere expressions by the Israeli regime of its desire for the state collapse and possibly balkanisation of Iran.
The Israeli regime has sought for Iran to be a state that has no capability for self-defense militarily, just like Syria has been reduced to a state that has no capability for preventing further raids and occupation of its territory by the Israeli regime.
That Iran should be reduced to such a state so that Israel can have untrammelled superiority in the region is an objective shared by Western leaders. British prime minister Keir Starmer said precisely this as he demanded that Iran should give up its weapons programmes.
There is little popular support even in the United States for a war on Iran. A University of Maryland poll from early February said that only 21 per cent of Americans were in favour of an attack on Iran, while 49 per cent were opposed to such action and 20 per cent said they were not sure. However, it should be kept in mind that popular opinion and massive protests in the West against the Gaza genocide did not stop the US and its Western allies from aiding and arming Israel. In the US, more Americans today sympathise with Palestinians in the Middle East situation than with Israelis, but that would hardly matter to the Trump administration.
Dangerous Times Ahead
A war in West Asia threatens millions of lives, and raises the possibility of greater instability in the region. Such a war, ostensibly aimed at combating terrorism, is likely to strengthen terrorism, as the examples of the US-led war on Iraq, the NATO-led war on Libya and the NATO-GCC war on Syria have shown. Iran has been a key force in the fight against terrorism, including the fight against ISIS.
The Arab monarchies, with their wish to see a weakened Iran, have remained loyal to the United States. But Israel having uncontested military superiority in the region could threaten even the territorial integrity of these Arab countries. Netanyahu is on record stating that he feels very attached to the "Greater Israel" project, in which the territory of Israel would include all or parts of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.
The attack on Iran comes on top of the US's naked aggression against Venezuela, the US attempt to suffocate Cuba by preventing oil from reaching the island, and the ongoing genocide in Palestine in spite of a ceasefire which is for all practical purposes bogus. The success of NATO-backed forces in dislodging the Arab nationalist government of Syria from power in December 2024 and in installing an al-Qaeda leader as the president of that country has emboldened the US and its allies in embarking on the renewed attacks on Venezuela, Cuba and Iran. Russia being tied up in Ukraine provides an added edge to the US in this regard.
The war on Iran is yet another sign that any country which tries to chart a development independent from the rest of the world, and which tries to stand up against the domination of the United States and its allies are under threat of being militarily attacked. The acts of renewed imperial aggression unleashed by the US can be seen as part of a push to roll back the tide of history, a blatant attempt to stop the rise of the Global South.
Subin Dennis is an economist and researcher at Tricontinental Research. The opinions expressed are personal.
