US-Israeli War on Iran Is Intensifying All of Global Capitalism’s Problems |
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On February 28, the U.S. and Israel expanded their joint genocidal war on Gaza onto Iran as well as Lebanon. After weeks of assassinations and bombing, President Donald Trump agreed to a ceasefire on April 7. This war of aggression by the U.S. and Israel is part of a continued attempt to wipe out any and all opposition to their dominance over the Middle East and its strategic energy reserves.
But they underestimated the capacity of the Iranian state. In addition to launching missile and drone attacks throughout the region, Iran blockaded the Strait of Hormuz, disrupting the production and shipment not only of fossil fuels but also an array of other commodities vital to global capitalism. With fossil fuel prices spiking and stocks crashing, Trump called off his threat to wipe out Iranian civilization and agreed to a ceasefire with Iran.
But Israel has already violated it, Iran has re-closed the Strait of Hormuz, and the ceasefire seems in jeopardy on the eve of negotiations for a settlement of the conflict in Pakistan. As a result, the world stands at the precipice of a multidimensional economic crisis.
In this interview for Truthout, Adam Hanieh discusses the U.S. and Israel’s imperialist goals, the war’s impact on the economies of the Global North and Global South, and its consequences for the geopolitical order as well as class and social struggles in the region and around the world. Hanieh is a professor in development studies and director of the SOAS Middle East Institute, University of London. He is author of Crude Capitalism: Oil, Corporate Power, and the Making of the World Market. This interview was conducted before the ceasefire and has been edited for clarity and length.
Ashley Smith: Clearly this war has been a disaster for the people of Iran. But the Iranian state has launched an asymmetric counteroffensive, targeted countries throughout the region, and shut down the Strait of Hormuz, and thereby disrupted the world economy. Why did the U.S. and Israel launch this war to begin with? What are the two states’ different war aims? How do they diverge? As the war has clearly backfired, what will they do to salvage it?
Trump’s Genocidal Threats on Iran Are Enabled by a Vast Apparatus of Destruction
Adam Hanieh: The war needs to be placed in the wider context of a weakening of American power and a global environment marked by a range of deep political, economic, and ecological crises. Under Trump, Washington has been trying to reassert its global strength through a mix of military coercion, sanctions, tariff threats, and pressure on weaker states. In that sense, this war is not an aberration but part of a broader attempt to demonstrate that the U.S. can still dictate terms in strategically vital regions.
“Any divergence between Israel and the U.S. is more a matter of emphasis than overall strategic goals.”
“Any divergence between Israel and the U.S. is more a matter of emphasis than overall strategic goals.”
The Middle East remains absolutely central here because of its importance to energy and other commodity flows, as well as its substantial financial surpluses that are reinvested globally. In 2025, nearly 15 million barrels per day of crude passed through Hormuz, about one-third of global crude trade. Most of these go eastward to China, India, and East Asia. This helps explain why Washington sees the region as a potential lever over rivals.
I don’t think there are major differences in U.S. and Israeli war aims. Both wanted to break Iran’s regional capacity, degrade its military infrastructure, and weaken the network of the various organizations aligned with Tehran across the Middle East. Lebanon is crucial in this respect, because Hezbollah has long fought against Israeli aggression — in this regard, Israel’s horrific onslaught in Lebanon has not received the attention it deserves in most media coverage.
I think any divergence between Israel and the U.S. is more a matter of emphasis than overall strategic goals. Israel tends to want a more thorough remaking of the regional balance in its favor, while the U.S. needs to consider the wider system of alliances it has built up over the decades. But the overlap is far greater than the difference.
The U.S. clearly underestimated Iran’s ability to respond asymmetrically, especially around the Strait of Hormuz. As such, Iran has not needed to “win” conventionally — by disrupting shipping, targeting energy infrastructure, and widening the field of conflict, it has shown that it can impose enormous costs on the world economy. It’s obviously very difficult to predict what the endgame will be.
“Israel’s use of mass displacement and collective punishment are now completely normalized in the eyes of the world.”
“Israel’s use of mass displacement and collective punishment are now completely normalized in the........