We may be witnessing the final round of a great power contest unfolding in the Middle East. At its center lies Iran, now under sustained assault by the United States and Israel in what appears to be a determined effort to cripple its military capabilities, dismantle the state and neutralise it as a regional power.

The objective is to defang Iran and render it toothless in a region where it has long positioned itself as a principal challenger to Israeli dominance.

The objective is to defang Iran and render it toothless in a region where it has long positioned itself as a principal challenger to Israeli dominance.

The US-Israel attack on Iran is not an isolated event – it was years in the making, as four-star general Wesley Clark revealed in 2007, citing a post-9/11 Pentagon plan to “take down” seven countries, starting with Iraq and ending with Iran.

The unravelling started by the slow dismantling of the Axis of Resistance. The first major blow came in Syria. After more than a decade of civil war that devastated the country, the Iran-backed government of Bashar al-Assad ultimately collapsed under pressure from rebel forces, depriving Tehran of the crucial geographic and logistical backbone of its regional strategy.

Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza have both been weakened by sustained military pressure and the assassinations of senior leaders, including Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. In the last ten days since the war began, Israel has continued its heavy bombardment in Lebanon, displacing hundreds of thousands and killing around 300 people. The........

© Middle East Monitor