1 March 2026, ETV Bharat | By Anuhadra Chenoy, IPB Board Member
The US-Israel axis started an unprovoked war and aggression against Iran. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Defence Minister, Army Chief have been killed, as have been scores of civilians, including over 150 schoolgirls. The US – Israel combined operation using high-precision weapons costing millions of dollars and kamikaze drones continues to target the Iranian leadership with the objective of regime change. Iran has retaliated by bombing US bases and Israel in the fragile oil-rich Gulf region. This war of attrition escalates, lives are lost, destruction and wanton devastation underscore strategic objectives of the empire and its desire for global hegemony. Globally, countries are appealing for cease fire and de-escalation.
The cover excuse for US aggression is Iran’s capability for uranium enrichment for the use of peaceful nuclear energy. The real reason, however, is the centrality of the Middle East to the global oil economy. The only resistance in the Middle East to this is from Iran. Control over oil will aid the US to squeeze the oil-dependent economies of China, India, ASEAN and even Europe for US global hegemonic control. Recently, the US has recognised its comparative decline on account of the rise of others, especially China. Of course, there are multiple ways these countries can preserve their interests. But for now, the US prioritises war for hegemonic control. Israel is its most useful instrument.
The current combined US-Israeli operations come after a twelve-day conflict with Iran from June 4, 2025, after which President Donald Trump declared US victory and destruction of Iranian nuclear sites. Iran had targeted over 400 Israeli sites. But clearly this did not satisfy either the US oil or Israel and the powerful US Jewish lobby, who thirst for regaining control over Middle East oil assets.
Iran has consistently agreed not to weaponise or nuclearise and signed agreements with the US like the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, July 2016). Trump withdrew from this in May 2018 and re-imposed harsh sanctions. Another attempt at regime change was made when popular anti-regime protests broke out. US Treasury Secretary Scot Bessant said the US had engineered the crash of the Iranian currency that provoked widespread protests. Further, the US covertly sent thousands of Starlink terminals into Iran to support anti-government protests, as admitted by the Chairman of the National Endowment of Democracy at a Congressional hearing.
Again, recent negotiations between the US and Iran in Oman reveal that a final agreement was in the making, and Iran was willing to concede the maximum any sovereign can. So clearly, US aggression, as analyst Marwan Bishara said, was “not because there was a breakdown in the negotiations, rather because there was a breakthrough in the negotiations.” (Al Jazeera, March 1, 2026). The actual motive is the complete submission of Iran to US-Israeli economic and political control for its oil resources and disobedience to accept Israeli strategic dominance in the region.
All sides are doing what they have promised to do to achieve their strategic objectives. The Israeli single-point agenda is to dominate the West Asian region, to expand its hegemonic regional control, physically expand its borders, and to be the single most important influencer and political and economic decision maker in this region. The US objective is to regain the unipolar hegemony it has been losing with the rise of China and others in a multipolar international system. The way to do this is control oil and OPEC+. Israel is its vehicle to achieve this in West Asia.
Iran has been the biggest and most consistent roadblock for US-Israeli and Western desires to achieve full-spectrum dominance in this region. First, when their democratically elected President Mossadegh nationalised Western oil companies, he was removed after a coup in 1953, as the pro-US lobby with the ‘Shah of Iran’ was installed. Then again, after the 1979 Iranian revolution, when the oppressive and pro-US Shah Pahlavi was overthrown and replaced by the Islamic revolution under the Ayatollah’s leadership. Since then, Iran ideologically opposed the Zionist Israeli regime and US imperialism.
Iran is also an anomaly in the region. It is seen as the single biggest resistance in West Asia because the other oil-rich Sunni-led Gulf monarchies like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, see Iran as a regional rival, Shia led threat to their Sunni dominance. The US has got several of them to sign the Abraham Accords that recognise Israel. Iran resists this.
China and Russia back Iran and have provided it with significant defence and anti-missile technologies. But clearly this is not enough for a country sanctioned for over four decades to fight the biggest superpower and its main ally, who possess endless resources and military capabilities.
The US-Israeli plan for strategic control decapitates any regime that raises its head in the name of economic or strategic independence. So, we witnessed the annihilation and wars in Iraq, the regime changes in Libya, Syria, Lebanon and the physical annihilation of any non-state group that challenges this hegemony.
The US is addicted to war and hegemony. Its military-Industrial and AI technologies are the backbone. This war has generated resistance and anti-war demonstrations globally. These will continue. These, however, are not yet enough for peace and international law to return. Only regime change and restructuring the US empire will ensure this. Until then, this loop of war and resistance will continue.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author. The facts and opinions presented do not necessarily represent the positions of ETV Bharat or IPB.