Blazingcatfur

This is the third Gulf war and umpteenth outbreak of conflict since the United States took over as the dominant power and influence in the Middle East at the end of the cold war. And it is arguably the most dangerous, consequential and confused of them all.

The destruction and chaos spreading across the region confirms the Middle East’s status as the world’s pre-eminent crisis factory, but it also raises questions as to how US presidents so often declare they are ending US interference in the region, only to be lured back in.

Since the second world war the US has set out to oust a government in the Middle East on average once a decade, and on almost every occasion it has left the country, and the US, worse off as unexpected consequences eventually emerge. As Donald Trump embarks on yet another regime change – this time in Iran, a country of 90 million people – the sense of foreboding is profound. Already the timelines are extending, and the sense is growing by the day that Trump is gambling with the fate of a country about which he knows next to nothing.

Everyone is counting Iran’s missiles. They are counting the wrong thing.

The number that determines the outcome of this war is not 2,000 or 2,500 or 3,000. Those are pre-war missile inventory estimates and they are now largely irrelevant. The number that determines the outcome… https://t.co/cgJ7yHJLwf pic.twitter.com/45jw3JbTsc

— Shanaka Anslem Perera ⚡ (@shanaka86) March 6, 2026

It’s the Guardian but worth a look assuming you’ve had your rabies shot.

Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who was killed in US-Israeli strikes, has been chosen as his successor.

Unlike his father, the 56-year-old has largely kept a low profile. He has never held government office, nor given public speeches or interviews, and only a limited number of photos and videos of him have ever been published.

But for years there have been rumours that he held considerable influence behind the scenes in Iran.

I am becoming rather fond of Prime Minister Starmer’s major foreign policy announcements. In early January, after US forces swooped into Venezuela and took President Maduro to New York to face trial, Keir Starmer was keen to get straight out in front of the cameras. There he said that he wanted to stress that ‘the UK was not involved in any way in this operation’. As though the whole world had been expecting to hear that the British armed forces were indeed central in snatching the narco-terrorist from Caracas.

This week it was again Starmer’s turn to stand behind a podium, British flags behind him, and deliver another statement that absolutely no one thought necessary. Speaking about the US-led strikes on Iran, he announced solemnly: ‘I want to set out our response.’ What could it be? The world wondered. ‘The United Kingdom played no role in these strikes,’ he declared.

US President Donald J. Trump’s decision to launch his devastating military campaign against Iran’s ayatollahs means that countries, such as Turkey and Qatar, which have previously been ambivalent about their attitude towards Tehran, will now need to undertake a serious reappraisal of where their true interests lie.

Prior to Trump launching “Operation Epic Fury”, the military campaign designed to eliminate Iran’s ability to produce nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles or support its proxies once and for all, several important regional players sought to remain neutral as the tensions deepened between Washington and Tehran over Iran’s nuclear programme.