“We are stripping the regime of its military capabilities, strategically isolating it and driving it to a point of unprecedented weakness,” said Israeli Chief of Staff Zamir. In other words: Iran’s missile and nuclear infrastructure should be eliminated.
Not only are holidaymakers staying away, many foreign skilled workers are also leaving the country. According to the Financial Times, the airport in Muscat even had to ban private jets from taking off. Added to this is the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which is of great importance for oil and gas deliveries to the world.
Meanwhile, according to information from “The War Zone” platform, Iranian drones destroyed important US Army radar installations in Qatar and Jordan. Iran is using its modest resources. In contrast to the war in June last year, the regime in Tehran does not respond indiscriminately with volleys of rockets against Israel, but rather specifically selects strategic targets in Israel, but also in Iraq or in the monarchies in the Gulf.
Behind closed doors, Israeli experts complain that US President Trump ended the so-called Twelve-Day War against Iran in the summer of 2025 too early. Most Israeli experts consider overthrowing the regime in Tehran to be difficult to achieve in the current war. “Iran may have been taken by surprise, but it was prepared for war. First of all, to ensure the continuity of the system by planning the replacement of its leadership,” the newspaper “Le Monde” quoted Sima Shine, a former agent of the Israeli secret service Mossad and now an Iran expert at the US research institute Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), about Iran’s strategy of targeted counterstrikes.
The US government’s line in the current war is not very clear anyway. President Donald Trump announced Iran’s “unconditional surrender” as his goal last Friday. However, Trump and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth expressed contradictory views about the possibilities of regime change. Even with the possible deployment of ground troops, the signals remain unclear. Trump recently indicated that such an operation would be a last resort. That would go down less well with his MAGA base in the USA.
