- As if the already boiling situation across the universe is not enough, the duo of President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has unleashed a war on Iran, thereby adding fuel to the already lit fire in West Asia/the Middle East. The combined US-Israel bombing on Iran that resulted in the killings of Ali Khamenei and other top Iranian leadership has resulted in Tehran retaliating forcefully against the US’s allies with intent. The killings of innocent lives and the destruction of the infrastructure will only help in further battering the region. As the Indian PM Narendra Modi mentioned not so long back, during the height of the Russia-Ukraine war, this is not the time for war; the same maxim applies in the present scenario as well.
PC: English Bombay Samachar
- Mind you, there’s no winner in any war. As such, the US-Israeli attack may not free Iranians but will only worsen the West Asian crisis. In attacking Iran, Trump and Netanyahu may have crossed a line from confrontation into open defiance of what remains of international law. There is no credible legal framework that justifies a sweeping military campaign of this scale. No one with an ounce of sense will mourn the death of a brutal dictator like Khamenei. But that doesn’t place a legal pink ribbon on the war either. Note that Khamenei savagely crushed dissent whenever it surfaced. From the Iranian Green Movement to the 2022 uprising sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, the state’s answer was consistent: force, fear, and fatalities. The fallout was expected.
PC: Global Times
- Many Iranians feel terrified of and estranged from the leadership – brute authority grafted into a society yearning to breathe. Sanctions, fuelled in part by Tehran’s incendiary rhetoric and regional adventurism, have punished citizens far more than the elite. Till now, the regime survived; the public paid the price, of course. But is that regime now ending? That’s the tricky question. Popular revulsion toward authoritarianism does not translate into tactical wisdom, you see. Removing a regime by foreign force is a perilous gamble. Even if the clerical order collapses, what rises in its place is uncertain. Iran’s opposition is fragmented. Exiled figures such as Reza Pahlavi command diaspora sympathy but not much support inside Iran.
PC: Mint
- As reported, ethnic groups like Kurds and Baloch have their own agenda. Remember, the Ayatollah regime cultivated a web of armed actors: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, its Quds Force, Basik militia, and regional proxies such as Kata’ib Hezbollah and Ansar Allah. In a protracted conflict, these networks can ignite flashpoints across West Asia, turning a bilateral clash into regional chaos. Tehran’s warning of a great retaliation is happening already. For Washington and Jerusalem, the ideal outcome would be an internal recalibration – a pragmatic figure emerging from within the system to negotiate a reset. Looks like this confrontation could spiral fast and ugly. Apart from oil, there are 8mn Indians in the Gulf. That’s terrible news for the world and for India.
