Iran: 12 Days After

Israeli attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran was conducted in the Pearl Harbor-style. After the very hard blow of the first two days that nearly decapitated its military, scientific and civilian leadership, Iran has incredibly succeeded in shifting hostilities to a potential war of long-distance friction with the Israelis. Iranian intelligence and police are identifying enemy cells active on Islamic Republic territory, finding traitors and collaborators even among the foreigners Tehran hosted for work (Afghans and Turks, for example) or for tourism (such as German Marek Kaufmann who was touring Iran by bicycle and he confessed to being a foreign agent just upon his capture by Iranian police).

Photo: Pixabay by STRIEWA, https://creativecommons.org/public-domain/pdm/

Nuclear blast

The missiles that Tehran launched at Israel put quite a strain on Israeli defenses - it was obvious that the Israeli air defense forces were showing signs of fatigue. It is not clear whether the Iranian warplanes were all destroyed in the initial attack or whether they are stationed in safe havens waiting for their moment, but the loss between last Saturday and Sunday of an Iranian F5E ready for takeoff from Dezful base was confirmed.

Israel increased pressure on Washington to force direct U.S. military intervention. Donald Trump, with his bombastic style, finally decided to intervene against Iran by dropping a handful of expensive GBU-57 bombs on Fordow and a salvo of the ever-present Tomahawk missiles on two other Iranian facilities. As before, again, after the initial boasting, it really seems that the results of the U.S. attack are not at all as certain as unknown are the consequences in the immediate and more distant future but the Iranian navy has taken a position in the Strait of Hormuz and is actively jamming the GPS signal, preparing for the blockade of the Strait, through which at least 20% of the world's oil and 30% of liquefied natural gas passes: after the favorable vote of the Iranian parliament, all that is now missing is the final vote of the national security council and the price of oil will fly at least toward $130 a barrel (JP Morgan sources). This is under the favorable assumption that the oil-based monarchies' pipelines are not destroyed in some attack.

To end World War II, Washington dropped two atomic bombs on Japan but the Japanese Empire had attacked the United States first thus dragging them into a very long war while Iran has always reacted in self-defense and has always been very cautious about attacking American targets even though it could gain an immediate advantage from their destruction: one example for all, the THAAD system radars.

Until now, the role of the Americans has proved to be that well miserable one of stooges of a regional bully, loser and exhausted by his own lack of contact with reality, at the same time a prisoner of its warrior impetus and blood lust. So much for MAGA!

Russia condemned the U.S. attack and, in a statement, Dmitry Medvedev said among other things that there are countries willing to supply Iran directly with nuclear warheads. As is well known, Iran has signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, unlike Israel, and has always cooperated with the IAEA. The Treaty and the fatwa against nuclear weapons by the great Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were supposed to be a protection for the Iranian country but this has not been the case. Medvedev's words thus take on special significance.

It is wrong to believe that Iran's enemies will be satisfied with the destruction of Iran's nuclear facilities alone: by their own admission, the next step will be regime change in Tehran. The real goal is to control Iran so that the new government is pro-Western, despoiling this noble nation of its oil resources as in the time of the Pahlavi and eventually using it in an anti-Russian, anti-Chinese and, more generically, anti-BRICS key.

Both Crown Prince Reza Cyrus Pahlavi and the MEK have little or no chance of actually ruling a country the size of France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland combined. Rather we would see the emergence of yet another Kaosthan divided into warring zones.

I managed with some difficulty to contact Alireza Niknam, an Iranian journalist and geopolitical analyst based in Tehran as well as a profound connoisseur of the Mojahedin-e Khalq, who gave me a brief statement just the day before the U. S. attack on Fordow:

In the Name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful

At a time when the Islamic Republic of Iran is facing an unprecedented wave of ruthless attacks by the Zionist occupying regime, we find it a moral duty to break the silence in the face of these blatant crimes against humanity and to convey the voice of the oppressed Iranian nation to the world.

The Zionist regime, in blatant violation of the fundamental principles of international law, has once again revealed its true nature by directly targeting Iranian civilians. In recent days, we have witnessed the brutal bombardment of residential areas, hospitals, cultural centers, and media institutions, including the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). These actions constitute clear instances of war crimes and deliberate attacks on the vital infrastructure of a sovereign nation.

Moreover, the martyrdom of defenseless children, women, national athletes, and Iran's academic and scientific elites — including physicists and university scholars — demonstrates that the Zionist regime recognizes no boundaries in its hostility toward the Iranian people. Its goal is not merely to undermine the governing structure of the country, but to eradicate the very identity and existence of the Iranian nation.

In its recent aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Zionist regime has once again trampled upon all core tenets of international humanitarian law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention and its Additional Protocols. The targeting of civilian areas — including hospitals, schools, cultural and media centers, and even religious sites — is a flagrant war crime and a grave violation of international humanitarian norms. These acts prove that the regime not only disregards moral and humanitarian principles but also is systematically attempting to destroy vital infrastructure and instill fear among the civilian population.

The direct targeting of civilians — including the martyrdom of children, women, journalists, athletes, and Iranian scientists — is a clear violation of Article 51 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, which explicitly prohibits attacks on civilians under any circumstances. Despite full awareness of these international laws, the Zionist regime continues to massacre innocent people, including women and children. These actions not only wound the conscience of humanity but also severely undermine the credibility and effectiveness of international institutions. The global community's silence in the face of such atrocities not only emboldens further aggression but also calls into question the legitimacy of international law itself.

We condemn these inhumane crimes in the strongest possible terms and call upon international organizations, the United Nations, the Human Rights Council, and all independent nations and free people of the world to issue official condemnations of these blatant aggressions and to take firm and practical measures against the aggressor regime.

At the same time, we affirm that the Iranian nation will not retreat in the face of these assaults. Instead, relying on Almighty God, national unity, and its unwavering commitment to the principles of resistance, it will defend its independence, dignity, and territorial integrity with all its strength. Furthermore, Iran recognizes its right to self-defense and reciprocal action in response to Israel's acts of aggression as entirely legitimate.

One final remark before concluding. On Katehon, Zeinab Mehanna outlines that:

"Martyrdom in the Karbala paradigm is not an escape from death but a conscious, volitional embrace of it as a testimony to truth. Imam Hussein Ibn Ali (as) was not simply killed; he offered himself as a sacred oblation. This act situates his martyrdom within the domain of existential-ethical thinking akin to "dying for the other' in the philosophies of Kierkegaard, Levinas, and even Heidegger (albeit through his ontological analysis of being-toward-death). In this schema, martyrdom is not an annihilation but the existential fulfillment of the complete human-one who attains the apex of moral becoming. Karbala thus becomes a true existential myth, in Paul Ricoeur's sense of the "mythos that reveals', not the myth that deceives.

In Shiʿi eschatology, martyrdom is not tied to the afterlife as a mere personal reward but as a cosmic enactment of justice. The martyr does not merely earn paradise; he participates in the reconstitution of divine justice in the world, as Allama Tabataba'i expresses in his exegesis of those who are "slain in the path of God'.”

Threatening with death and destruction a social group that is steeped in such spirituality serves no purpose and, on the contrary, makes its members more determined to achieve their goals.