Bashir Abu-Manneh Indeed, Trump stands in a long lineage of US presidents who use military force in the Middle East as a core part of US strategy. What are the immediate causes and long-term policy objectives of the US attack on Iran? What explains the Trump administration policy on Iran?
Gilbert Achcar Ever since the 1979 Iranian revolution brought down the shah’s regime, a major regional US ally, Tehran has become an annoying thorn in the side of the United States. Relations between the two countries have nevertheless gone through contrasting phases: as odd as it may seem, there have been phases of cooperation between Washington and Tehran after 1979. In the 1980s, the United States and Israel sustained Iran’s war effort against Iraq in what became known as the Iran-Contra affair. It was then in their best interest to prolong the war between what they viewed as two rogue states threatening their interests. Then Iran backed the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq through the collusion of its Iraqi proxies with Washington.
Paradoxically, the US military brought with it those proxies and installed them in power. The result was that Iran became the main beneficiary of the invasion, eventually achieving more sway over Iraq than the United States — one reason why Iraq is regarded as a major fiasco in US imperial history, on par with Vietnam.
The nuclear deal that the Obama administration concluded with Tehran in 2015 did not prevent Iran from furthering the expansion of its regional influence, which was boosted by its intervention in Syria on the side of the Bashar al-Assad regime starting from 2013 and by the Houthis’ takeover of the northern part of Yemen in 2014. In this regional expansion, Tehran exploited both anti-Israel and anti-US resentment and Shia-sectarian allegiance. It is the main reproach addressed by Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the key Gulf monarchies to Obama, whom they all begrudge because he concluded the nuclear deal at a time when Tehran’s regional power expansion was in high gear, without giving due attention to limiting that expansion. On the contrary, the deal improved Iran’s economic standing, hence facilitating its regional policy.
Consider all the reasons that we’ve mentioned, and you’ll understand the strong rationale behind Trump’s policy on Iran. Through the present onslaught, he is hoping to achieve dominance over that country, which would complete and hugely enhance US dominance over the Gulf as well as over the whole MENA region.