President Donald Trump has ordered an all-out assault on Iran, with the stated goal of bringing 'freedom' to the country. The move comes less than a year after Trump declared a new era of US foreign policy in the Middle East, one that is not guided by trying to reshape it or change its governing systems.
Analysts say the war with Iran does not fit with Trump's stated political ideology, policy goals, or campaign promises. Instead, several Iran experts told Al Jazeera that Trump is waging a war, together with Israel, that only benefits Israel and its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Negar Mortazavi, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington, DC, said: 'This is, once again, a war of choice launched by the US with a push from Israel. This is another Israeli war that the US is launching. Israel has pushed the US to attack Iran for two decades, and they finally got it.'
Regional Context
The war with Iran has sparked a regional crisis, with Iran firing missiles against bases and cities that host US troops and assets across the Middle East in retaliation for the joint US-Israeli strikes. Trump acknowledged that US troops may suffer casualties in the conflict.
The Trump administration had appeared to step back from the brink of conflict earlier this month by engaging in diplomacy with Tehran. US and Iranian negotiators held three rounds of talks over the past week, with Tehran stressing that it is willing to agree to rigorous inspections of its nuclear programme.
International Response
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib stressed that the US public does not want war with Iran. 'Trump is acting on the violent fantasies of the American political elite and the Israeli apartheid government, ignoring the vast majority of Americans who say loud and clear: No More Wars,' Tlaib said in a statement.
Only 21 percent of respondents in a recent University of Maryland survey said they favoured a war with Iran. The US public, wary of global conflict after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, has also been largely opposed to new strikes against Iran, public opinion polls show.
Source: Al Jazeera
