War On Iran

ISRAEL AND IRAN have been locked in mortal combat since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 that brought Ayatollah Khomeini to power. Tehran has since been obsessed with the destruction of the Jewish state; Jerusalem has watched Iran surpass its Arab neighbours as an existential threat. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, has wanted to destroy Iran’s nuclear programme since 2009 but various factors—disagreement about assassinations and military strikes, warnings from the US, and lack of opportunity—had put the ongoing conflict off by almost two decades. The Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities coupled with targeted killings of its scientists as well as military and Revolutionary Guards commanders since June 13 were planned and prepared for over a long time. Israel believed Iran was very close to nuclear weaponisation and that, should Tehran get a nuke, it would be inevitably used against it.

Tehran miscalculated the timing of the Israeli strikes. Although Iranians on the street are angry, Netanyahu’s calls for the regime’s overthrow will not be heeded. And yet, nobody volunteers to fight for a repressive state. Ayatollah Khamenei is 86 and the revolution’s legacy is in tatters. The regime hasn’t been this weak and its serial mistakes so exposed since the Iran-Iraq War. With or without American involvement, this round of the Israel-Iran conflict was never going to end like the aerial skirmishes last year.

Ayatollah Ali KhameneiBenjamin NetanyahuDonald TrumpIsrael-Iran conflictMiddle East crisis