The damaged facade of the Gandi Hospital, which was hit March 1, when a projectile struck a state TV communications tower and nearby buildings across the street, during the ongoing joint US-Israeli military campaign on the capital Tehran on March 2, 2026. The United States and Israel launched strikes against Iran on February 28, killing Iran's supreme leader and top military leaders, prompting authorities to retaliate with strikes on Israel and across the Gulf.
Image: Atta Kenare / AFP
Bombing Iran with the most lethal weapons of mass destruction, America and the illegal apartheid regime of Israel are engaged in a violent carnage of death and destruction to impose regime-change. Though it is widely known that the script is written in Tel Aviv by a wanted war criminal facing charges at the Hague for genocide in Gaza, the execution of the war on the Islamic Republic of Iran by the Trump administration in cahoots with the Zionist regime, follows a pattern of racist white supremacists. The target is Iran.
The price is a bloodbath.
The goal has precedence in a history of vile hatred against Islam.
Independence and self-determination by the only Muslim state in post-colonialism founded on values of human rights and justice – for itself and oppressed people across the globe – has posed a threat to corrupt western domination since the ground breaking Islamic Revolution of 1979 led by Imam Khomeini toppled an Israeli/American lackey. Since then every trick in CIA and Mossad's books have been tried to remove Iran's principled Islamic government and replace it with the corrupt dictatorship of Reza Shah's western cloned grandson.
Reza Pahlavi does not operate in a vacuum. As a committed Zionist his political orientation to serve US/Israeli interests has been incubated in Washington and Tel Aviv. He accounts not to Iran but to those who manipulate him: CIA and Mossad. In his folly he forgets that the history of his family's repression and tyranny was orchestrated by the British colonial empire during the 1920s.
Reza Pahlavi's vain hope to be installed on the despised "Peacock Throne", relies on US and Israel’s war on Iran - in other words at gunpoint in typical gangster style. The collective memory of millions of Iranians who remain faithful to Islam and the revolutionary ideals of the Islamic Republic, will recall how Britain orchestrated a coup to install his grandpa Reza Khan. They forcefully imposed a loyal secular dictator not to serve Iran, but to secure Britain oil interests and to disrupt any efforts by Persia – as it was known then – to unite with the Muslim Caliphate.
Indeed, in March 1924 just days after Kamal Ataturk abolished the Ottoman Caliphate, Reza Khan attempted to declare a "Persian Republic" on the Turkish model. When that failed, he crowned himself the new Shah, officially severing Persia's religious, cultural and political links to the wider Caliphate. Serving British interests, he set out to erase Iran's Islamic identity and replace it with a pre-Islamic nationalist one, dividing Muslims along racial and ethnic lines.
Another important era that is reduced to marginal footnotes is that of Mohammad Mossadegh who became Prime Minister of Iran in 1951 and was hugely popular for taking a stand against the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. As soon as he nationalised British oil, CIA and MI6 orchestrated a coup to overthrow him.
Reza's notorious father, the Shah was installed as a puppet, exactly what's being plotted today to ensure that Iran's resources be directed to fill western coffers.
Iran remains steadfast in its resolve following the assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei, showcasing its military capabilities and defiance against external pressures. Iqbal Jassat explores the historical context of Iran's struggle for independence and self-determination.
Image: Screenshot / Supplied
While the unelected self anointed "crown prince" waits to be parachuted in power, Trump and Netanyahu’s Operation Shield of Judah and Operation Epic Fury has led to doubts about any likely success of their dubious, illegal war on a sovereign country. Between glaring contradictions of war goals and the day-after, the world, especially the Global South, is acutely aware that while negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program between Washington and Tehran were underway, diplomacy was exposed as deception.
The plot hatched under the pretence created by Trump that he would provide his team more time, instead gave Netanyahu the go-ahead with CENTCOM to unleash terror. Iranian policymakers had already accused the US of bad faith after the June 2025 strikes disrupted previously scheduled talks.
A day after the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Tehran has not folded nor collapsed. To the dismay and shock of the US/Israel calculations, Iran has escalated its retaliation, demonstrating its continuedability to maintain operational command and control across its military assets. Contrary to expectations that the Supreme Leader’s death might trigger immediate paralysis, the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran remains firmly in control.
Analysts point out that the scope and depth of Iran’s retaliatory attacks confirm the system and institutions remain rock-solid rather than disrupted.
Iran remains steadfast in its resolve following the assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei, showcasing its military capabilities and defiance against external pressures. Iqbal Jassat explores the historical context of Iran's struggle for independence and self-determination.
Image: Supplied
* Iqbal Jassat is an Executive Member of the Media Review Network.
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.