1). “Iran launches retaliatory strikes across the Middle East after US and Israel attack – live”, Live coverage with frequent updates, The Guardian, at < https://www.theguardian.com/
2). “US and Israel launch joint attack on Iran as Trump urges regime change: US president calls on Iranian people to ‘take over your government’, as explosions heard across central Tehran”, Feb 28, 2026, 6:27 AM (EST), Emma Graham-Harrison in Jerusalem and Patrick Wintour in London, The Guardian, at < https://www.theguardian.com/
3). “Trump’s unprovoked attack on Iran has no legal mandate and no clear objective: US president violates UN charter just days into the Board of Peace era, and chooses to take the biggest gamble of his administration”, Feb 28, 2026, 7:23 AM (EST), Julian Borger, in Jerusalem, The Guardian, at < https://www.theguardian.com/
4). “A world on edge as Trump bombs Iran and triggers war in the Middle East. There was no need for this: We cannot know where this foolish, reckless attack will end – but new hatreds will be seeded, terrorist vendettas sown and, ultimately, little will be achieved”, Feb 28, 2026, 5:46 AM (EST), Simon Tisdale, The Guardian, at < https://www.theguardian.com/
~~ recommended by desmond morista ~~
Introduction by desmond: This ongoing military “wag-the-dog” attack, with its biggest single motive being to shift the focus of people in the U.S. from the Trump / Epstein Sex Crimes files to the convenient war. We can also expect a “national emergency” declaration that the Trumpista Faction will use to try to take control of the 2026 mid-term elections. Recently the Zio-Fascist Oligarchs took over control of CBS and Tik-Tok (the main source of news for the under 35 members of our population) and are in the process of taking control of CNN. CBS and CNN are legacy media outlets that mostly bring material to older people; while as noted Tik-Tok reaches younger people. I chose to post links to 4 items from The Guardian, a internet and print outlet, that while imperfect is beyond the control of the far-right U.S. Oligarchs who have taken control of, and are interfering in editorial operations of once more-or-less independent legacy U.S. Media outlets (such as CBS, CNN, and the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal). Of course the response by independent and left-leaning journalists and commentators is to set up blogs, and most recently substack websites and to offer their opinions and observations there.
As for developments this morning, cloaked in the usual blanket of B.S. and disinformation, the loathsome Trump posted an 8-minute long video announcement of the attack, on his Nazi-infested website Truth Social. True to the usual scenario, played out many times; the Zio-fascist forces used the negotiations in Oman as a way to buy time, that was used to gather as many of their military forces as possible for the inevitable military attack. Included in that Truth Social video was a desultory call to the Iranian People to hide in their homes during the bombing campaign, and then emerge to “take over the government”. Even more ludicrous was the appearance, at the Munich Security Conference of the son of “The Shah” (Reza Palavi deposed in 1979, some 46 years ago) claiming to have 100 experts ready to serve in an “interim administration” that he would lead.
The interventionists in the Trump Regime were buoyed by the relatively easy victory in Venezuela, in which a commando type operation managed to abduct President Maduro and his wife and get out of the country in a 2-hour long operation. In contrast Iran is a much tougher society and we can expect a typical “rally round the flag” response by most of the population of Iran. Time will tell if any sort of serious opposition develops internally in Iran, but it seems pretty unlikely. The U.S. is not capable of actually committing ground troops in Iran, or basically anywhere that the use of ground troops would continue for more that a couple of days. In fact the U.S. Army, unable to recruit as many troops as they wanted, recently reduced the size of the Army by 25,000.
Just what the consequences of this “massive and sustained” military attack, as defined by Donald Trump, will be is not yet clear. Iranian leaders have threatened to close the Straits of Hormuz and stop 20% of the world's oil and gas supply from getting to users. That could cause extreme price spikes driving world oil prices much higher than is currently the case. Of course, most of the oil and gas that pass through the Straits of Hormuz, goes to Asia including South Asian places such as India and to China. The response of the East and South Asians will be to buy oil and gas elsewhere, driving up prices in the rest of the world.
Trump and his handlers and faction members clearly want to use this military attack on Iran to “wag the dog”, and take away the heat of any efforts to expose Trump's crimes in the Trump / Epstein files affair. A national emergency would also be very handy in the efforts to take control over the 2006 elections and push through a fraudulent and largely phony “election win” for Trump and the far-right.
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Iran launches retaliatory strikes across the Middle East after US and Israel attack
Airbus has released this georeferenced image showing damage to the Tehran compound of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei:
Key events
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The UK, Germany and France have condemned Iranian attacks on countries in the region, saying Iran must refrain from indiscriminate military strikes.
They did not comment on US and Israeli attacks on Iran.
British prime minister Keir Starmer, French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Friedrich Merz issued a statement Saturday saying their countries didn’t take part in the strikes on Iran but are in close contact with the US, Israel and partners in the region.
The three countries have led efforts to reach a negotiated solution over Iran’s nuclear program.
We condemn Iranian attacks on countries in the region in the strongest terms. Iran must refrain from indiscriminate military strikes. We call for a resumption of negotiations and urge the Iranian leadership to seek a negotiated solution. Ultimately, the Iranian people must be allowed to determine their future.
Airbus has released this georeferenced image showing damage to the Tehran compound of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei:
Brazil has expressed “grave concern” about strikes launched by the US and Israel against Iran, which has retaliated with wide-ranging missile attacks.
The foreign ministry said in a statement:
The Brazilian government condemns and expresses grave concern regarding the attacks,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Brazil calls on all parties to respect international law and exercise maximum restraint in order to avoid an escalation of hostilities and ensure the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure.
The Guardian’s foreign affairs commentator Simon Tisdall writes in his column that, in a world on edge, there was no need for this attack by the US:
They never learn. Once again, a bellicose US president has unleashed overwhelming military firepower to force a sovereign nation to its knees. Once again, blatant lies and exaggerated claims are being propagated to justify the attack. Duplicitous American diplomacy became a fig leaf for premeditated aggression. The cautionary advice of allies was spurned. The UN, international law and public opinion were ignored. Democratic consent is lacking. And once again, there are few defined goals by which to gauge success, and no long-term plan.
Now, as in the past, the predictable result of today’s renewed, expanded and apparently open-ended US-Israeli aggression against Iran will be instant, spreading chaos. Civilians will be killed, children orphaned, families torn apart. Regional turmoil and international oil-price panic will follow the Iranian retaliation that has already begun, and which may be backed by Tehran’s Hezbollah and Houthi allies. New hatreds will be seeded, terrorist vendettas sown. The west’s foes will rejoice. And almost nothing of enduring value will be achieved. That was the bitter outcome of the failed US-led interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Today, it’s Tehran’s turn to reap the whirlwind.
How dismaying – how unforgivable! – that those past lessons have not been learned. How incredible that an elected 21st-century American president still believes it’s effective and permissible, let alone moral, to dictate to the world from the barrel of a gun. By what conceivable right does the US behave in this way?
Read his full opinion piece here:
Israel’s energy ministry has ordered the temporary shutdown of parts of the country’s natural gas reservoirs as Iran retaliates against the US-Israeli strikes.
The Leviathan gas field offshore Israel, operated by Chevron has been shut down, three sources told Reuters. Energean’s production vessel that serves several Israeli fields has also been shut down, the company said in a statement.
Across the border from Iran in a separate conflict, Pakistan’s military, backed by artillery and air power, has struck more military installations deep inside Afghanistan.
Pakistan claimed more than 300 Afghan forces had been killed since fighting erupted Thursday night during a broad Afghan cross-border attack into Pakistan. Afghanistan rejected the figures as false. The casualty figures provided by either side could not be independently confirmed.
You can read out analysis of that situation here:
The first war of Donald Trump’s Board of Peace era has begun – an unprovoked attempt at regime change in collaboration with Israel, with no legal foundation, launched in the midst of diplomatic efforts to avert conflict, and with minimal consultation with Congress or the American public.
Trump’s recorded eight-minute address after the first bombs had fallen, made clear that this would be no limited strike aimed at cajoling Tehran into concessions at the negotiating table. He warned that if Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) did not surrender they would be killed, and the country’s armed forces, its missile and navy would be smashed.
The maximalist aims of the joint attack cast doubt on whether there had ever been any prospect of success for the US-Iranian negotiations in the preceding weeks, in which delegates discussed possible limits on uranium enrichment. Those talks, the latest round on Thursday, had been conducted under the shadow of what Trump called his “beautiful armada” gathering in the Middle East, the biggest US force in the region since the ill-fated 2003 Iraq invasion, and it now seems likely that only a complete capitulation on Iran’s part could stop this assembled American might being unleashed.
UK prime minister Keir Starmer is chairing a meeting of the UK government’s Cobra emergency committee as Britain decides how to respond to the US-Israeli bombing of Iran, and Tehran’s retaliation against bases in the Gulf.
A government spokesperson said:
“Iran must never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon and that is why we have continually supported efforts to reach a negotiated solution. Our immediate priority is the safety of UK nationals in the region and we will provide them with consular assistance, available 24/7.
“As part of our longstanding commitments to the security of our allies in the Middle East, we have a range of defensive capabilities in the region, which we have recently bolstered. We stand ready to protect our interests.
“We do not want to see further escalation into a wider regional conflict.”
French president Emmanuel Macron has called for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council and that his country “stands ready to deploy the necessary resources” to its closest partners in the region.
France hosts several military bases in the Middle East, notably in Qatar, the UAE and Jordan, all countries which have been targeted by Iranian missiles today.
He said:
The ongoing escalation is dangerous for all. It must stop. The Iranian regime must understand that it now has no other option but to engage in good faith in negotiations to end its nuclear and ballistic programs, as well as its regional destabilization activities. This is absolutely necessary for the security of all in the Middle East.
The Iranian people must also be able to freely build their future. The massacres committed by the Islamic regime disqualify it and demand that the voice be returned to the people. The sooner, the better.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen called for restraint and described the developments in Iran as “deeply concerning”.
She said:
Ensuring nuclear safety and preventing any actions that could further escalate tensions or undermine the global non-proliferation regime is of critical importance.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov condemned the strikes against ally Iran and held a phone call with Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi, his ministry said.
In a statement, the ministry said:
[Lavrov] condemned the unprovoked armed attack by the US and Israel on Iran, which violates the principles and norms of international law and completely disregards the grave consequences for regional and global stability and security.”
The UN human rights chief Volker Türk urged for the bombing to stop as he implored all parties “to see reason” and return to the negotiating table.
He said:
Bombs and missiles are not the way to resolve differences but only result in death, destruction and human misery.
Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, who headed the nuclear talks for the Iranian delegation, vowed that his country would defend itself against the strikes by Israel and the US.
In a defiant message posted on social media, he said:
Netanyahu and Trump’s war on Iran is wholly unprovoked, illegal, and illegitimate.
Trump has turned ‘America First’ into ‘Israel First’— which always means ‘America Last’.
Our powerful armed forces are prepared for this day and will teach the aggressors the lesson they deserve
Cyprus, the EU’s closest state to the Middle East, has activated emergency plans to evacuate third-country nationals from the region.
Within hours of the start of the US-Israeli offensive, the island’s foreign minister, Constantinos Kombos, announced the emergency move.
“We are closely monitoring the developments in the region and remain in constant contact with our diplomatic missions on the ground,” he wrote on X.
“In light of this situation, the special national plan ESTIA has been activated. ESTIA is the ministry of foreign affairs’ emergency action plan, enabling the safe evacuation of EU and third-country nationals from nearby crisis areas in the wider Middle East via Cyprus.”
The government would respond to developments as they unfolded, he said.
Located less than an hour from the coast of Lebanon, the country has frequently operated as a point of refuge at times of crisis with airport facilities in Larnaca being used to evacuate thousands from the Middle East when conflict erupts.
An Iranian missile struck a military base in Kuwait hosting Italian troops, causing what officials described as “significant damage” to the runway, according to reports carried by the AFP news agency.
Other sources suggested that one of the projectiles hit a Nato facility in the country, inflicting “extensive damage” on the site.
Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, confirmed the attack, saying the base houses around 300 Italian service members. All personnel were reported safe and unharmed.
The Omani foreign minister Badr Albusaidi, who has been mediating indirect nuclear talks between the US and Iran over the past month, said he is “dismayed’ by the violence that has erupted in the Middle East.
In a social media post, he said:
I am dismayed. Active and serious negotiations have yet again been undermined. Neither the interests of the United States nor the cause of global peace are well served by this. And I pray for the innocents who will suffer. I urge the United States not to get sucked in further. This is not your war.
You can read our diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour’s analysis on today’s attacks and their impact on the negotiations here:
Qatar’s defence ministry has just issued a statement saying it successfully thwarted a third wave of missiles launched from Iran.
“The ministry confirms that the threat was addressed immediately upon detection and in accordance with pre-approved operational plan,” the statement read.
Saudi Arabia has condemned the “blatant Iranian aggression” on Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan and the UAE, which have all faced retaliatory strikes.
In a statement posted on social media, it said:
The Kingdom affirms its full solidarity with and unwavering support for the brotherly countries, and its readiness to place all its capabilities at their disposal in support of any measures they may undertake. It also warns of the grave consequences resulting from the continued violation of states’ sovereignty and the principles of international law.
Journalists at the AFP news agency reported several explosions in the Saudi capital Riyadh this morning, although officials have not commented on this.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency has reported that at least 40 people were killed after an Israeli strike hit a girls’ elementary school in Minab in the southern Hormozgan province.
At least 45 others were wounded in the attack, the news agency reported. It provided no further details about the casualties.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has a base located in Minab, according to reports.
Bahrain’s interior minister said it has begun to evacuate people from the Juffair area, south-east of the capital Manama, where a US naval base is located.
“We urge your cooperation with the relevant authorities,” the ministry said in a statement posted on social media.
We reported earlier of the multiple explosions near the US navy’s fifth fleet headquarters in Bahrain.
An Israeli military official just held a media briefing, telling journalists that Israel and the US had launched a joint offensive against Iran that had been planned for months and had much more ambitious aims than those of the previous round of conflict between Israel and Iran in June last year.
Describing Iran as an “enormous threat” to Israel, the US, the region and the world, the official said that Israel’s mission was to “significantly reduce and degrade the Iranian regime’s capabilities” and that Israel’s operations would continue “as long as necessary”. The aim was a “bigger change, for years to come”, they said.
The official refused to confirm or deny that Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, was among the targets, adding that Iran’s air defence system was one of the priorities for Israel’s initial wave of strikes.
“The Iranian regime has the blood of tens of thousands on its hands … A lot of their leadership is involved in efforts aiming at the destruction of Israel and military planning, so they can be targets,” the official said.
The official said Israel had identified a “sharp acceleration” in the Iran’s production of missiles, as well as efforts to move forward again with its nuclear programme despite the destruction inflicted last year.
“They are developing dozens of ballistic missiles each month, and their pace of production is getting faster and faster,” he said.
“This is a regime that is moving forward towards producing thousands of missiles in the coming years. A dramatic expansion of an already dangerous arsenal,” the source added.
The official said Israel has mobilised 70,000 reservists — mainly air defence staff but also others — and deployed troops to defend its borders against any scenario.
Aegean Airlines – flights to and from Tel Aviv in Israel, Beirut in Lebanon and Erbil in Iraq until 2 March.
Air France – cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv in Israel and Beirut in Lebanon today.
British Airways – cancelled flights to Tel Aviv and Bahrain until 3 March and its flight to Amman in Jordan today.
Iberia Express – cancelled a flight to Tel Aviv scheduled for today.
Japan Airlines – cancelled a flight today from Tokyo Haneda to Doha in Qatar as well as a return flight on 1 March.
Lufthansa – suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv in Israel, Beirut in Lebanon, and Oman until 7 March and flights to and from Dubai in the UAE this weekend.
Norwegian Air – suspended all flights to and from Dubai until 4 March.
Turkish Airlines – cancelled flights to Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE and Oman today and flights to Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Jordan until 2 March.
Virgin Atlantic – cancelled its VS400 service from London Heathrow to Dubai today.
Qatar Airways – suspended flights to and from Doha due to the closure of Qatari airspace.
Wizz Air – halted flights to and from Israel, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Amman with until 7 March.
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US and Israel launch joint attack on Iran as Trump urges regime change
Israel and the US have launched a war on Iran, with Donald Trump declaring the start of “major combat operations” and calling on Iranians to rise up against their government.
The US president’s comments came soon after explosions were heard across central Tehran. One apparent strike hit near the offices of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran is preparing a “crushing retaliation”, an Iranian official told Reuters.
People run for cover after an explosion in Tehran. Photograph: Majid Asgaripour/Reuters Iran launched a retaliatory wave of missiles and drones at targets in Israel and at US military bases across the Middle East. Explosions were heard in Israel, Bahrain, the home of the US fleet in the Middle East, Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.
Smoke rises after blasts were heard in Manama, Bahrain. Photograph: Reuters Israel had earlier declared a state of emergency, warning civilians to stay near air raid shelters, in anticipation of Iranian drone and missile strikes in response.
Iran and Israel both closed their airspace to civilian flights.
Israelis enter an underground shelter in Haifa, northern Israel. Photograph: Rami Shlush/Reuters The attack on Iran came hours after Trump said he was “not happy” about the latest negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme.
The US had built up a large military presence in the region in recent weeks in preparation for an attack, including two aircraft carrier strike groups.
Both the US and Israel called for regime change in Iran and urged a popular uprising after Saturday’s attacks.
Trump called on the Iranian people to “take over your government” in a video on his Truth Social platform. He offered the Iranian military “immunity” should they surrender, or “certain death” if not, and told Iranians the “hour of your freedom is at hand”, urging them to rise up and “take over your government”.
'Lay down your weapons': Trump warns Iran's armed forces as US launches military operation – video Israel directly addressed Iranians in a Persian-language post on a dedicated Telegram channel.
“Our Iranian brothers and sisters, you are not alone!” the post said, calling on Iranians to upload photos and video of anti-regime protests. “Together we will return Iran to its glorious days.”
Trump and the Israeli military described their attacks as a pre-emptive strike against Iranian threats.
The first wave of strikes in what the Pentagon named Operation Epic Fury mainly targeted Iranian officials.
An Israeli official said Khamenei and Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, were targeted but that the result of the strikes was not clear. A source with knowledge of the matter had earlier told Reuters that Khamenei was not in Tehran and had been transferred to a secure location.
An Iranian source close to the establishment told the Reuters news agency that several political officials and senior commanders in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards had been killed.
By late morning the scale of Iran’s attacks across the Middle East was becoming clear, as its Revolutionary Guards commanders insisted there were no red lines and no targets off limits. Explosions heard in Bahrain, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait suggested Iran had activated its plan to try to hit as many US bases in the region as possible. Iran said warnings had been given to the Gulf states’ leaders explicitly in the past and that no one should be surprised by what was to come. The UAE and Kuwait closed their airspace.
Smoke in the sky over Jerusalem, after Iran launched retaliatory strikes on Israel. Photograph: Ammar Awad/Reuters Iranian officials said they had not been surprised by the US attacks and that the consequences would “be long lasting and extensive. All scenarios were on the table including ones that were not previously considered.”
Iranian state television reported that Pezeshkian was “safe and sound”, while the Fars news agency said seven “missile impacts” were reported in the Keshvardoost and Pasteur districts of Tehran.
The strikes come weeks after Iranian authorities killed thousands of people in a crackdown on mass protests, according to rights groups.
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Trump’s unprovoked attack on Iran has no mandate
US president violates UN charter just days into his Board of Peace era, and chooses to take the biggest gamble of his administration
The first war of Donald Trump’s Board of Peace era has begun – an unprovoked attempt at regime change in collaboration with Israel, with no legal foundation, launched in the midst of diplomatic efforts to avert conflict, and with minimal consultation with Congress or the American public.
Trump’s recorded eight-minute address after the first bombs had fallen, made clear that this would be no limited strike aimed at cajoling Tehran into concessions at the negotiating table. He warned that if Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) did not surrender they would be killed, and the country’s armed forces, its missile and navy would be smashed.
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The way would then be open for the Iranian opposition and the country’s ethnic minorities to rise up and bring the regime down.
“It’s time for all the people of Iran – Persians, Kurds, Azeris, Balochis and Akhvakhs – to shed from themselves the burden of tyranny and bring forth a free and peace-seeking Iran,” Trump said.
'Lay down your weapons': Trump warns Iran's armed forces as US launches military operation – video
Coordinating the message as well as the missiles, Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country had joined the war “to remove the existential threat posed by the terrorist regime in Iran”.
The maximalist aims of the joint attack cast doubt on whether there had ever been any prospect of success for the US-Iranian negotiations in the preceding weeks, in which delegates discussed possible limits on uranium enrichment. Those talks, the latest round on Thursday, had been conducted under the shadow of what Trump called his “beautiful armada” gathering in the Middle East, the biggest US force in the region since the ill-fated 2003 Iraq invasion, and it now seems likely that only a complete capitulation on Iran’s part could stop this assembled American might being unleashed.
Trump has long railed against the folly of the Iraq war. He campaigned twice on a platform of ending US military entanglements abroad, and lobbied aggressively to be awarded the Nobel peace prize based on the factually shaky claim to have ended eight wars.
Barely 10 days before launching the war, he had hosted the inaugural meeting of his Board of Peace which was supposedly going to resolve conflicts, not just in the Middle East but around the world. That meeting brought leaders and senior officials from 27 disparate states, most of them autocracies, to Washington to praise Trump the peacemaker.
They heard Tony Blair, a living link to the Iraq debacle 23 years ago, declare Trump’s Middle East vision, “the best – indeed the only hope – for Gaza, the region and the wider world”.
By then, however, most of Washington’s traditional allies in Europe and beyond had become deeply sceptical of Trump’s motives and stayed away. The Board of Peace was sold to the UN security council in November as the only path to ending the slaughter in Gaza, but it had been clear long before the first missiles were fired at Iran, that it was a “bait-and-switch” scam. The UN thought it was buying one thing but it was sold something quite different: a rival body to the security council, but one in which Trump would be in charge.
The attack on Iran is a clear violation of the UN charter, in any absence of any credible, imminent Iranian threat to the US. In an attempt at justification Trump spoke in generalities, denouncing the Tehran leadership as “a vicious group of very hard, terrible people” and 47 years of enmity between the US and the Islamic Republic.
Over that half century, Iran has arguably never posed less of a threat than now, weakened both by the joint attack by the US and Israel last June that degraded its defences, and decades of sanctions combined with economic migration which brought mass protests on to the street.
Smoke rises in Tehran after US and Israel launch joint attack on Iran – video
In the Board of Peace, however, there is no requirement for Trump to justify himself. There are no rules other than those giving Trump the power to make them up as he goes along. It has become increasingly clear that the board is not primarily a forum for resolving conflict, but a vehicle for the president’s political and financial interests. Those governments who signed on as board members now find themselves complicit in a war few of them want.
It is not entirely clear what transformed Trump from a peace president to a war president, but there are clues. At home he faces setbacks, ever lower popularity in the runup to the midterm elections, and a recent rebuke from a normally friendly supreme court on his power to use tariffs as his favourite foreign policy tools.
Wilbur Ross, commerce secretary in Trump’s first term, said the court defeat had made an attack on Iran more likely.
“I don’t think he can take this loss and then be seen as backing down on Iran,” Ross told the Wall Street Journal.
Meanwhile, the cloud of suspicion over Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein has not been dispelled despite the best efforts of the justice department to ration the flow of revelations about the sex-offending financier’s child-trafficking operations.
Anti-riot police in central Tehran in front of a state building covered with a billboard depicting the destruction of a US aircraft carrier. Photograph: Majid Saeedi/Getty Images
“I’m really worried, because he gets so unhinged almost when he’s in trouble like this,” Democratic senator Chuck Schumer told MS Now television a few days before the war began. “I’m worried what he might do in Iran – who knows?”
Abroad, Trump appeared to have given up chasing a Nobel peace prize, warning the Norwegian prime minister (who had no say in awarding it) last month that he no longer felt “an obligation to think purely of peace”.
For Trump, who had far more success as a reality show character than a property developer, war began to look like a better distraction than peace. He was thrilled by a daring and successful raid on Venezuela in January, in which US special forces whisked the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, out of the country without a single casualty.
Trump is clearly counting on spectacular success in Iran, broadcast live, to bring his country along with him after the fact. Before his overnight recorded statement, there had been no real effort by the administration to lay out a convincing case to Congress or to the nation, at a time when polls suggest only a quarter of the US electorate supports a new war in the Middle East.
Regular on-camera press briefings at the Pentagon have been a historical fixture in the runup to previous conflicts, but the recently renamed Department of War had not held one since December.
With the annual State of the Union address on Tuesday coinciding with US military preparations coming to a peak, there was some expectation Trump might use the occasion to lay out a case for war. But he spent only three minutes on Iran out of a record total of one hour 47 minutes.
Congress, which in theory has the constitutional prerogative to decide whether America goes to war, has been almost totally sidelined. Eight congressional leaders from both parties were briefed on classified information a few hours before the State of the Union speech by the secretary of state, Marco Rubio. But Democratic senators emerged saying that they had not been given a good reason why the country had to go to war now.
In 2003, the road to war in Iraq was paved with lies about nonexistent weapons of mass destruction. The path to a new conflict in Iran 23 years later has been lined largely with incoherence or silence.
Trump has made clear that he expects the Iranian people to be the agents of regime change after US and Israeli bombs have weakened the existing power structures. There is no intention to carry out a ground invasion. In his recorded statement he did warn the public to expect some US casualties, but it is unclear how many combat deaths the electorate, including Trump’s own supporters, would accept in such an obvious war of choice.
Faced with the possibility of defeat for his party in November’s elections, the president has chosen to taken the biggest gamble of his presidency.
History suggests that it is very hard to bring down entrenched regimes with aerial bombing alone, and now that it has been made clear to the government in Tehran it is in an existential struggle, it can be expected to try to inflict maximum harm on its attackers with everything at its disposal.
A B-2 stealth bomber takes off during Operation Midnight Hammer, the US attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June 2025. Photograph: US Air Force/Reuters
“The Iranians have come to the conclusion that restraint has been interpreted as weakness and invites more aggression,” Ali Vaez, the International Crisis Group’s Iran project director, said, adding that Iran’s capacity to wreak damage on its enemies has not really been tested.
“In the 12-day war, the Iranians didn’t use any of the military capabilities that they have developed over many, many years to target US assets, like short-range missiles, cruise missiles, naval assets, drones, underwater drones, anti-ship ballistic missiles and cruise missiles,” Vaez said.
Iranian forces would have a wide range of targets close at hand, including vessels, military and commercial, in the strait of Hormuz or the wider Gulf. Selective targeting proved effective for Tehran’s allies, the Houthi forces in Yemen, who narrowly missed a US aircraft carrier with one of their missiles.
The Houthis could well take part in the Iranian response, aware that the defeat of the Tehran regime would rob them of their sponsor. Hezbollah, though much weakened by Israeli bombardment last year, has rebuilt some of its strength and could also choose to join in for similar reasons.
“In all the years of war games in Washington, in the Pentagon and with all the thinktanks, without exception one or two US warships would sink,” Vaez said.
“Obviously, it would push Trump to retaliate in a devastating manner. But then he will have launched another major war in the Middle East,” he added.
“There’s no way that Trump can frame that as a victory. His presidency will be completely eclipsed by that.”
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A world on edge as Trump bombs Iran and triggers war in the Middle East. There was no need for this
They never learn. Once again, a bellicose US president has unleashed overwhelming military firepower to force a sovereign nation to its knees. Once again, blatant lies and exaggerated claims are being propagated to justify the attack. Duplicitous American diplomacy became a fig leaf for premeditated aggression. The cautionary advice of allies was spurned. The UN, international law and public opinion were ignored. Democratic consent is lacking. And once again, there are few defined goals by which to gauge success, and no long-term plan.
Now, as in the past, the predictable result of today’s renewed, expanded and apparently open-ended US-Israeli aggression against Iran will be instant, spreading chaos. Civilians will be killed, children orphaned, families torn apart. Regional turmoil and international oil-price panic will follow the Iranian retaliation that has already begun, and which may be backed by Tehran’s Hezbollah and Houthi allies. New hatreds will be seeded, terrorist vendettas sown. The west’s foes will rejoice. And almost nothing of enduring value will be achieved. That was the bitter outcome of the failed US-led interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Today, it’s Tehran’s turn to reap the whirlwind.
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How dismaying – how unforgivable! – that those past lessons have not been learned. How incredible that an elected 21st-century American president still believes it’s effective and permissible, let alone moral, to dictate to the world from the barrel of a gun. By what conceivable right does the US behave in this way?
While there are certain differences, the similarities between Donald Trump’s siege of Iran and George W Bush’s disastrous 2003 invasion of Iraq are striking. Both crises fit a wider pattern of ultimately unsuccessful, costly US interventionism dating back to Vietnam – and the 1953 CIA-led Iran coup. Trump promised to avoid foreign adventures. Surprise! He lied. Anyone who believes he has radically changed the way the US engages with the world should review this sordid saga of post-1945 imperial hubris. In this, he’s no different from his predecessors.
Trump is unusual in that his self interest is so evident. Though he said today that he wants “freedom” for the Iranian people, and for Iran to be a place that’s “safe”, he’s no Woodrow Wilson, who justified plunging the US into the first world war in 1917 by saying “the world must be made safe for democracy”. (It transpired Wilson meant democracy in Europe, not in the colonial empires of Africa, the Middle East and Asia.) After attacking Venezuela in January, Trump baldly admitted he just wanted the oil. Yet in other respects, what’s happening now feels very familiar.
Smoke from an Iranian strike on a US navy headquarters in Manama, Bahrain, 28 February 2026. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images Like Bush, Trump manufactured a crisis, founded on falsehood, and effectively cornered himself. He is hostage to self-imposed expectations, having confounded his own false claim to have “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities last year. Like Bush and his accomplice, Tony Blair, Trump deliberately inflates the threat. His unsubstantiated State of the Union claim that Tehran’s ballistic missiles could “soon” reach US territory recalls notoriously false US and UK claims about Saddam Hussein’s fabled weapons of mass destruction. Israel’s claim to have mounted “pre-emptive” strikes is misleading, too. There is zero clear evidence Iran was about to attack. On the contrary, it was desperately hoping to preserve the peace after last June’s damaging US-Israeli onslaught.
Speaking on Truth Social, Trump claimed Iran has repeatedly failed to renounce nuclear weapons. Not true. The regime, from the supreme leader down, has repeatedly done that over 20 years. Foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said again last week that Iran “will under no circumstances ever develop a nuclear weapon”. There is claim and counter claim, but the fact is that, neither the US, UN inspectors nor Israel’s ultra-hostile leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, have provided proof that Iran plans or wants to build nukes.
Prior to the attack, Trump refused to define his aims despite Arab and European allies’ fears of regional conflagration. Now his stated demands border on delusional. He says he is seeking to “obliterate” Iran’s nuclear facilities (again), destroy its ballistic missiles, destroy the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (or accept its unconditional surrender in return for “total immunity”), and somehow also destroy Iran’s allied proxy forces in the region.
Trump is also openly encouraging the Iranian people to rise up and overthrow their government, having previously declared that regime change is “the best thing that could happen” and promised “help is on its way”. But he doesn’t say how that change can be achieved without deploying ground troops, as in Iraq and Afghanistan, occupying the country for years, and fighting open-ended insurgencies – and no such US deployment is on offer. When George HW Bush made a similar appeal to Iraqis following the 1991 Gulf war, a mass slaughter of the Shia Muslim population ensued, carried out by Saddam’s undefeated regime.
“This will be probably your only chance for generations,” Trump said as he called for a national insurrection. “For many years, you have asked for America’s help, but you never got it. No president was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight. Now you have a president who is giving you what you want, so let’s see how you respond.” Yet there are good, sensible reasons why no previous president has done something so reckless in Iran. And it’s certainly no “gift”. It’s an irresponsible invitation to anarchy and mayhem. It could trigger the fracturing of the Iranian state into its many ethnic and religious components and a catastrophic civil war drawing in regional states. If so, that’s on Trump. That’s the height of foolishness.
Explosions in Tehran, Iran, after US and Israeli strikes, 28 February 2026. Photograph: Noor Pictures/Shutterstock “Trump poses an exponentially greater danger to Americans and the world – not because he is a historical anomaly but rather because he reflects the worst impulses from the American past,” warned Ben Rhodes, Barack Obama’s former deputy national security adviser, in a recent essay. Trump typified the entrenched problem of vainglorious American exceptionalism. “What innate confidence in our own special character leads the US government to try to control a world that does not want to submit to our will and does not believe in our supremacy?” Rhodes wondered. “We are now entering another spasm of aggression cast as necessity.”
For the second time, Trump has offered negotiations to Iran while obviously planning an attack. It’s now evident this week’s negotiations in Geneva were a charade. Nor is there any sign Trump and Netanyahu, having set out their maximalist objectives, will break off the attacks soon. To do so would suggest failure. Trump wants to be the president who finally avenges US humiliations during the 1979 Iranian revolution, who brings Iran back into the western fold. He also wants a “win” to impress November’s midterm voters – one that revives his poor approval ratings. As for Iran-obsessed Netanyahu, he wants the impossible: guaranteed security for ever, on Israel’s neo-colonialist terms.
It’s unclear how this dangerous, ill-considered intervention may end. Although “leadership targets” (meaning the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and his close associates) are reportedly being attacked, a sudden government collapse remains improbable at this point. It follows that the regime, though wounded and reduced, will continue to pose serious, and possibly greater, domestic and international challenges. Iran cannot be bombed into functioning democracy. The defiance of the west that it represents cannot be talked away in social media posts. As long as Khamenei or designated clerical successors are in charge, vicious repression and regional troublemaking will persist.
Common ground nevertheless exists, on which peaceful coexistence could be built. Concepts of democratic self-determination, political autonomy, individual rights and adherence to moral principles are anathema to control-freak authoritarians such as Trump and Khamenei. But not to their countries’ peoples. Like a Persian emperor, what “King” Donald really wants from Iranians is capitulation, tribute and homage. He demands a similar fearful fealty from citizens at home.
Despite all the hate-mongering, mutual ignorance and disinformation, the vast majority of Americans and Iranians are on the same side. Their common foe is tyranny. Their leaders are the problem. There is no need for this fight.
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