The US media is full of reports that US President Donald Trump is mulling to attack Iran by Saturday, although he has still yet to make a decision on whether to green light an attack. As per Times of Israel 1 ‘the timeline for a decision is expected to extend beyond this weekend, adding that the Pentagon is temporarily shifting some personnel out of the Middle East in the coming days as it readies for a potential Iranian counterattack if the US strikes. It is very likely that Iran is also to retaliate on US and Israel alike. The Guardian 2 has informed that Trump ‘has yet to make a final decision on whether to carry out an attack. Trump has repeatedly demanded Iran cease its nuclear program, and has warned he intends to use force if no deal is reached.’ Iran is engaged in nuclear talks with IAEA at Geneva and has expressed its willingness for negotiations but also has made clear that its missile-programme is non-negotiable. The talks in Geneva, perhaps, have very little chance to succeed, owing to the massive military build-up of US around Iranian waters. Iran, Russia and China are also engaged naval joint military drills as Iran is to close down Straits of Hormuz from where around 20% of world oil passes through.
If this war breaks out, it is to engulf the whole region very rapidly. US had already positioned it two aircraft carriers, nearly a dozen warships and hundreds of fighter aircraft in the region. In recent days, dozens more jets, including F-35s, F-22s and F-16s, have reportedly been sent. Over 150 cargo flights have moved equipment and munitions into theatre in the last 48 hours inform The Statesman 3 . US want to kill Iran’s supreme leader Ayatullah Khamenie, bombard its key missile programme and target Iran’s nuclear facilities. Something, which it could not do, though it had claimed, during the 12-days Iran-Israel war in June 2025.
US is to put to use around 100 of its fighter jets to jointly attack Iran. Israel is to be a part of it too. Qatar which houses Al Udeid military base of US is to be used by US for attacks. Qatar does not want Iran to attack Al Udeid but could not fathom the temerity to stop US to stop such a huge military build-up to be used against Iran. US military wherewithal is now inside Egypt, Jordon and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. US anyhow want Iran to not initiate any attack. It wants to engineer internal unrest, even military coup against the regime or else wants to dismantle Iranian war machinery through cyber warfare.
Iran has long laid naval mines inside the Straits of Hormuz. Today, according the many reports, there is a stream of US oil tankers lined to cross it but are stranded as Iran has locked the route, albeit for only a few hours. If this route is blocked, the oil prices are to sky rocket as well as the gold and silver international market rates. Iran has also made it clear that it would firstly target USS Abraham Lincoln, which will not be able to defend against Iran’s hypersonic missiles.
Perhaps, the long cherished dream of Israel to make US bomb Iran is drawing near. Ex. US intelligence agency CIA official John Kiriakou had recently spoken, televised on Youtube 4 , that Israel wanted George HW Bush to bomb Iran. Every PM of Israel without exception wanted US to do it, to which every US President declined, but now Donald Trump, has made it happen ( June last)! In a shocking revelation, he has informed that Israel was going to use its nuclear weapons to destroy Iran’s deep bunkers etc. which made Trump to do so, and in a way, Trump wanted to save triggering world-war-three. He further has elaborated that Israel had got its nuclear bomb from South African after its apartheid regime had ended!
Afghanistan, from where US had to leave after 20 years of unsuccessful war, is what US should have heeded as this war is far more dangerous. US wants to initiate war and end it at the earliest but the skeptics believe that the war may spiral out for months and its flames may engulf nations in the region. China is into support of Iran and it is yet unknown if China has provided cutting-edge technology to Iran as China wants to bring down US, for concerns over US involvement in Taiwan. The war is also to see Arab nations promise to invest billions in US fall into jeopardy as this war is not to remain closeted in a corner like what had happened in Afghanistan. This is to be a mainstream war, with Russia, closely in support of Iran, the way Iran has stood by it in the war against Ukraine, since the last four years.
The world is very dangerously close to the start of may be the third world war.
The writer is a former UP State Information Commissioner and writes on international politics.
References:
2-https://www.theguardian.com/
3-https://www.thestatesman.
