US-Israeli imperialism unleashes carnage across Middle East

The two most corrupt leaders in the history of their countries are leading an imperialist war in the Middle East that has unleashed carnage across the region and no-one knows how or where it will end.

A peace agreement between Iran and the US was in sight when US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu started the war on Saturday 28 February. US and Israeli bombs rained down on Iran in a long threatened assault that has plunged the entire region into an unprecedented crisis. 

Only the day before., 27 February, the Foreign Minister of the Gulf state of Oman said indirect talks between US and Iran had “really advanced substantially” and diplomacy must be allowedto work. He saidIran agreed during indirect talks with the United States never to stockpile enriched uranium, a major breakthrough. This was supposedly the US aim, to prevent Iran developing nuclear weapons. However the Trump regime and its Israeli ally - the only state in the Middle East with nuclear weapons - had other ideas. The next day the war was started. One of the first US-Israeli bomb attacks killed 167 Iranian school-girls. 

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on 2 March that the US went in because they knew Israel was going in and they needed to pre-empt Iranian counter-attacks against US targets. A day later he tried to row back and claimed the US was going to attack anyway; but nothing can conceal the fact that this war is driven by Netanyahu’s long cherished aim to smash Iran. He and Trump enjoyed a short bout of self-congratulation after their weapons killed the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei but the most asked question now is ‘What next?’ And they have no answer except more slaughter. 

For both Trump and Netanyahu the consequences of this war could see the end of their power. The sight of the so-called ‘deal-maker’ Trump being led into this far-flung entanglement by Netanyahu could prove a turning point in US domestic politics. Netanyahu and the Israeli population have so far got away with genocide against the Palestinians since October 2023 with little direct impact on themselves. But now missiles and drones are raining on Israel and the war is likely to result in ever greater violent opposition to Israel across the Middle East. 

But whatever happens to the two corrupt warmongers, it is the millions of people who live in the Middle East who suffer now and will suffer more. This is but the latest bloody chapter in the horror story of Western imperialism in the Middle East since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War. With Tsarist Russia, the British had carved up Persia (as Iran was then known) before the Russian Revolution in 1917. That secret imperialist treaty was revealed by the Bolsheviks when they took power in Russia that year. British domination continued for decades but against an  increasingly determined Iranian population. This culminated in the election of prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh who in 1951 nationalised Iran’s oil resources which had been ruthlessly exploited by the British. 

There followed the notorious toppling of Mossadegh in a primarily British operation with the aid of the CIA in 1953. It was one of the last acts of arch-imperialist Winston Churchill before his retirement from politics. The absolute monarch known as the Shah of Iran was then installed and backed by the US and Britain until 1979 when a popular revolution threw him out. In the turmoil it was the clerical caste that took power and they have ruled Iran to this day. Having backed Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war, the US turned on Iraq and initiated another disastrous conflict. 

In all the chaos of changing regimes and regional power politics over the following  decades two constants remained - US backing for the aggressive apartheid state of Israel and Western determination to dominate the Middle East to ensure the continued flow of oil. So it is still today.

Never was there a greater need for a strong United Nations organisation yet never since World War 2 has the UN been so weak. Yet it is as this very time that here at home the Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael-Lowry government chooses to undermine Irish neutrality and the UN by preparing to abolish the Triple Lock which requires a UN mandate as well as Irish government and Dáil approval for overseas missions involving Irish troops. Instead Mícheál Martin is increasing the 26-County state’s involvement in EU militarisation. And his government is allowing Shannon Airport to be used as a staging post for the US military on their way to attack Iran. 

In the Dáil on 3 March Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald challenged Mícheál Martin: 

“The US-Israeli assault on Iran is an act of aggression that threatens to set the entire Middle East ablaze. A sovereign state has been bombed. Its leader assassinated. These are not defensive actions. These are actions of powerful states acting in defiance of international law.”

Criticising Martin’s response, McDonald said: 

“Taoiseach, calling for restraint ‘on all sides’ blurs the reality of who initiated this escalation. Only days ago, you spoke of Ireland being able to ‘stand militarily’ with states engaged in conflict. That language undermines Ireland’s neutrality. Neutrality matters precisely at moments like this. It means we do not align ourselves with aggression. But more to the point it means we defend international law consistently.”

On 6 March in its assault on southern Lebanon, Israel attacked UN peacekeeping forces, revealing the apartheid state’s key motivation in this war - another step towards the ‘Greater Israel’ sought by Zionist fanatics and their US backers.