Despite President Trump having announced a ceasefire, which Iran appears to have endorsed, there is, however, conspicuous silence from Israel, thereby rendering the situation in the Middle East for now as fluid as it was. The whole world was in a constant tizzy, desperately trying to decipher “I may do it, I may not do it” & other such ‘cryptic’ statements President Trump had been making incessantly since the beginning of Israel’s airstrikes against Iran. 

And, finally, the US struck some of Iran’s most critical nuclear facilities, there is no scope left for any ambiguity about Prime Minister Netanyahu having succeeded in drawing in ‘seemingly’ hesitant President Trump into the ‘Rising Lion’ military operation against Iran. What remained to be seen was whether US defence forces would mark their physical presence on the ground which seemed from the beginning unlikely, unless Iran embarked on a suicidal mission with retaliatory attacks on US military personnel & assets, or only continued to facilitate via logistics and crucial munitions support as well as if & when found vital with heavy aerial bombings. The Iranian attack on the US base in Qatar is understandably face-saving customary retaliation.

The objectives of the present campaign have been the total dismantling of Iran’s Atomic programme and its anti-Israel Islamic clergy-led regime. Depleting the missile strike capability of Iran and the decimation of its military leadership as well as ‘scientists’ leading the uranium enrichment project is of course concomitant.

Already, as reports suggest US Navy aircraft carriers and other military equipment have been diverted to the Middle East and nearly forty thousand strong US deployments in the region were put on high alert.

It was known that Israel despite having inflicted huge losses on Iran, would still need an American arsenal like bunker buster bombs and corresponding special carrier stealth bomber B52 to penetrate the deep under-hill uranium enrichment facilities. America has just done it but with caution though. Destruction of munitions stores or munitions launching facilities of the enemy is a routine war game while the destruction of the uranium enrichment centre could have dangerous environmental consequences especially if the enrichment level is of a high degree as is speculated in the case of Iran. 

And, the way these nuclear plants are spread across Iran leaves the local Iranian population and even the neighbouring countries vulnerable to hazardous contamination. And, it certainly cannot be the objective of the current military operation, going by the repeated announcements by the Israeli leadership, that they have no enmity with the ordinary people of Iran, it is the Islamic clergy-led establishment that swears by “Death to Israel” ‘Death to America” slogan, that is the target. As the reports are coming, for now, there is no evidence of any nuclear leakage, suggesting American bombing was calibrated and measured.

Strategically speaking, even America wouldn’t want a devastated Iran left at the mercy of clergy led wounded regime for Shia dominant Iran with disbanded IRGC and of course, minus / defanged Ayatollahs as leverage to maintain the balance of power against possible Sunni hegemony in the Middle East.

President Trump’s statement “Iran must now make peace after US bomb strikes” and earlier calling for ‘surrender’ could be the indication of the plan that envisages an Islamic clergy-less moderate non-anti-Semitic political set-up in Iran (Trump could have a deal with Putin on Ayatollah’s safe passage to Moscow) that formally acknowledges the ‘right’ of Israel to exist and is ready to give up the uranium ‘enrichment’ agenda, should be acceptable to Israel. Any attempt to paradrop a pliable ‘leader’ from outside in Tehran will surely be a disaster.

Since, Iran’s proxies Hamas and Hezbollah have been largely decapacitated, in absence of any further support from the ‘new’ regime in Iran, will let Israel feel more secure paving the way for the national solution to the Palestinian issue in the long run. Since the present crisis in the Middle East is rooted in the October 7, 2023 savagery inflicted by Iran sponsored Hamas barbarians on Israel, only unconditional release of Israeli hostages both dead and alive and surrender of remnants of Hamas and other Jihadist groups still active, should be a precondition to any cessation of the ongoing military operations in Gaza. How Ironic, the President of the West Bank-based UN recognised Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas calls Hamas ‘sons of dogs’ while the Islamic Republic of Iran has patronised the very jihadists in the name of a very Palestinian cause. 

Jihadisation of the Palestinian movement by the present Iranian regime has sabotaged the national solution of Palestine. As a result, Palestinians stand almost abandoned by the rest Arab/Muslim world, only superficial sympathy is rendered to them now and then. Routine pan-Islamic rhetoric aside, as of today, Iran too stands isolated. Only disabled Hamas, its proxy has come out strongly against the American intervention. Cold shoulder in Moscow to the visiting Iranian Foreign Minister is all obvious.

Even the Islamic Republic of Pakistan which claims to be the champion of Muslim Ummah, exploits Palestinian issues only to whip up passion in the name of Islam. In the seventies of the last century, Zia ul Haq then brigadier on deputation to assist the Jordanian army, later on return rose to become the General of the Pakistan army and then usurped power, was responsible for killing thousands of Palestinian refugees in Jordan. This genocidal cleansing of Palestinians by Zia ul Haq resulted in the emergence of the terrorist group “Black September“ known for executing the heinous Munich Olympics massacre of Israeli athletes among other terror strikes.

In Iran’s immediate neighbourhood, America has military bases in Iraq & Syria while it enjoys considerable influence amongst Sunni Salafi Taliban in Afghanistan, exploiting the historical Shia-Sunni fault lines, Pakistan was also being roped in to besiege and pressurise Iran into submission. Although Pakistan does show customary outrage over Israel’s attacks on Iran there is no love lost between the Shia Iran and Sunni supremacist Pakistan. Pakistan-origin Pakistan-sponsored Sunni jihadists do not even spare the neighbouring Islamic Republic of Iran. In response to repeated terror attacks from Pak soil, January 2024 saw Iran retaliate with a barrage of rockets targeted at the Sunni Terrorist camps in Pakistan. And, Pakistan also returned the fire.

Field Marshal Asif Munir makes it to the White House dining hall, not because Donald Trump is enamoured of the Pindi Mulla in Khakis, he has been summoned to seal Pak’s acquiescence in the use of Pakistan’s ground and air space against Iran. Pakistan known for its perfidious duplicity, surely is going to oblige. President Trump has been kind and served Asif Munir lunch, but George Bush was harsh. At the launch of “Operation Enduring Freedom” post 9/11in 2001, the then US President served the ultimatum “You are either with us, or you are with the terrorists” & Gen. Musharraf readily capitulated to the chilling threat “We will bomb Pakistan to stone age” and gave away very Taliban that Pakistan had reared in its own backyard.

Govt. of India maintains that this is not the era of war and accordingly, it was conveyed by Prime Minister Modi to the President of Iran Masoud Pezeshkian on the phone that diplomacy and negotiations should be the way forward.

The Indian government has India’s relations with Iran remain situational. There is oil trade and related investment, as collaboration on Chabahar port, both have been on the same side with anti-Taliban Northern alliance and post-2001 Taliban eviction governments in Afghanistan. To India’s chagrin, Iran has been regularly commenting on the ‘plight’ of Muslims in Kashmir and in the rest of India generally, even drawing parallels with persecuted Muslims in Myanmar and the plight of Muslims in Gaza. Only in 1994, Iran chose to scuttle OIC’s move to embarrass and harass India in UNHRC on the Kashmir issue because of strategic reasons to forge a common cause with India especially concerning the then evolving explosive situation due to the bloody civil war & emergence of the Salafi Taliban in the Iran’s bordering neighbourhood in Afghanistan.

Growing India-Israel relations are deep, beyond diplomacy, technology and military hardware. It’s like a civilizational bond between the two nations.

India is the worst victim of Pak-sponsored pan-Islamism-inspired terrorism, having suffered Kashmir jihad-led genocide of aborigine Hindus in Kashmir & numerous terror strikes across India including the 26/11 Mumbai carnage. The recent massacre of Hindus by Islamists in Pahalgam–Kashmir had a HAMAS imprint on it. And, Israel has shown unambiguous and unconditional support for India. Therefore, empathising, when it comes to an existential threat to Israel, India is bound to stand with David.