What next after Iran? |
WITH the start of the Israel-US war on Iran, marked by missiles strikes on various targets in Tehran as well as other urban centres, the attempt to reshape the region is underway. It may be several days before it is evident if the ‘regime change’ objective of this war has been achieved and how the Islamic Republic has fared in what it says is an existential fight.
When US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told interviewer Tucker Carlson that Israel had the right to take over vast swaths of the Middle East on biblical grounds, a horrified Muslim world, particularly the Arab Gulf States, protested.
Huckabee’s boss, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, may have counselled American officials not to say things that complicate matters and cause problems for the Trump administration’s policies and relationships in the region, but the cat had been let out of the bag. This statement came against the backdrop of an unprecedented US military build-up in the region.
Huckabee’s words need not materialise in physical terms. It is abundantly clear that an Israeli ‘takeover of the Middle East’ and, frankly, beyond, is visualised so that it is surrounded by compliant, friendly regimes with none having the military means to defy the apartheid state and question its occupation of Palestine and the genocide of the Palestinians.
The Israel-US attack on Iran has absolutely nothing to do with Iran’s nuclear programme.
It is early days yet and the ultimate result of this war will hinge on two........