MIDDLE EAST ON THE BRINK

Israel’s pre-emptive strike on nuclear and military targets in Iran has taken the Middle East to the edge of the abyss. The Israeli Prime Minister – Benjamin Netanyahu, appears to have ordered the strikes following a decisive vote in a board meeting on 12 June of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), where by 19 votes to 11, they declared Iran in breach of its duties as a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. The Israeli attack also killed Hossein Salami, the commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), along with Iran’s highest-ranking military officer Mohammad Bagheri and the armed forces’ deputy commander in chief Gholamali Rashid. At least six of Iran’s leading nuclear scientists have also reportedly been killed. Iran has launched a massive retaliatory drone and missile attack on Israel, with every one of the first wave of 100 drones successfully eliminated over Jordan and Saudi Arabia, before they even reached Israel.

Although the U.S. have stated that they took no part in the attack, it seems they anticipated the action, when on 11 June they ordered the evacuation of staff from the U.S. embassy in Iraq and recommended the voluntary departure of military dependents from elsewhere in the Middle East. A U.S. defense official in the Pentagon said: “The safety and security of our service members and their families remains our highest priority, and U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) is monitoring the developing tension in the Middle East.”

The Israeli attack has come as ongoing nuclear talks between the Trump administration and the Iranian regime appear to have reached deadlock over U.S. demands for the mullahs to end all uranium enrichment. The sixth round of nuclear negotiations were due to be held in Oman on 15 June but will not now take place. However, President Trump commented that the Iranian regime’s tone had recently become much more aggressive, and the mullahs were clearly using delaying tactics in an attempt to prolong the talks.

The mullahs have continued to insist on the right to enrich uranium for what they claim are peaceful civilian energy purposes. Their claim has been exposed as a sham by the IAEA who have noted that Iran now has a stockpile of around 900 lbs of uranium enriched to near weapons’ grade – 60% purity, while uranium enriched for civilian purposes only requires 4% purity. The UN nuclear watchdog chief, Rafael Grossi, told the IAEA board meeting how the mullahs obstruct inspections, withhold crucial information, and restrict monitoring. He said Iran now has enough enriched uranium to make up to 9 nuclear bombs in rapid time. Clearly there was no way Netanyahu was willing to wait any longer.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared soon after the strikes began, that the U.S. had taken no part in the attack, which he described as “unilateral action” by Israel. He warned the Iranian regime not to retaliate against the U.S. Nevertheless, as the conflict between Israel and Iran escalates, the mullahs have accused Washington of being complicit in the attack and confirmed that they may now target U.S. military bases in the Middle East. Iran’s Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh said: “If a conflict is imposed on us … all U.S. bases are within our reach, and we will boldly target them in host countries.” Now intelligence sources have confirmed that there is evidence of Iran-backed militias from the Popular Mobilization Force (PMF) in Iraq, preparing for possible strikes on U.S. interests in the region in a further dangerous and inflammatory escalation.

The mullahs’ aggressive response against Israel and potentially against America, hides their growing panic in the face of looming outright military defeat. Their once defiant hegemony in the Middle East is now in tatters, with the fall of their key ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria and the effective dismantling by Israel of their proxies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. They are at their weakest point ever since the 1979 revolution that brought them to power. U.S. pummelling of the Houthis in Yemen has severed a further chord of Iranian arms-length warmongering and with their economy in freefall, the rial currency worthless, inflation spiralling and unemployment at unprecedented levels, the mullahs have their backs against the wall. A second day of Israeli air strikes on nuclear enrichment facilities, ballistic missile factories and military commanders was launched on 13 June. There seems to be no way for the theocratic regime to survive.

Now, in a stunning admission, a senior cleric – Ahmad Khatami, a member of the powerful Assembly of Experts and Guardian Council, has disclosed that the mullahs fear being overthrown by Resistance Units of the main democratic opposition movement, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). Addressing a group of Basij paramilitary personnel, known for their thuggish attacks on unarmed protesters, particularly women, Khatami said the regime was profoundly anxious over the possibility of a “swift overthrow” orchestrated by the PMOI/MEK.

His speech, in the city of Veramin, riddled with fear and paranoia, exposed for the first time the mullahs’ fabrications about the PMOI/MEK, where they routinely referred to them as having no foothold of support inside Iran. Indeed, Khatami’s speech clarified the polar opposite, where he blamed the recent nationwide uprisings that raged across the country in 2021 and 2022 on the PMOI/MEK. His remarks were a direct acknowledgment of the decentralized, cell-based structure of the Resistance Units, whose members carry out acts of defiance such as spraying anti-regime graffiti on government buildings, displaying banners and images of Resistance leaders in public spaces, firebombing regime compounds and organizing protests.

The IRGC now fears that the PMOI/MEK Resistance Units will merge their nationwide anti-regime activities with the burgeoning discontent of the Iranian population, igniting a powder keg that will overthrow the tyrannical mullahs. As the Middle East now teeters on the brink, the world watches in anticipation of amass insurrection that will end the mullahs’ tyrannical rule and restore peace to the Middle East.