“They shoot women because their hair is uncovered. They shoot students. They just suck the oxygen out from these brave and gifted people, the Iranian people. The decision to act, to rise up this time, is the decision of the Iranian people.” These were the words of Israeli PM Netanyahu in the midst of Israel’s war of aggression against Iran.

There was a time when international diplomacy was a relatively stable affair – undoubtedly complex, but at the same time fairly predictable. The great powers decided policy quite cynically, in line with their own national interests. 

13 June 2025 marked a dangerous turning point in the Middle East. Israel, backed by US imperialism, launched unprecedented strikes on Iran, targeting military sites but also causing heavy civilian casualties.

On June 21, Trump took the momentous step of bombing three nuclear sites in Iran with “bunker-busting” Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOP) and Tomahawk missiles. This was the largest attack by the US on Iran in modern history.

Despite the Jordanian government’s words of condemnation against Israel’s attacks on Iran, in practice they have defended the Zionist state by intercepting Iranian missiles. Israel has saved the Jordanian regime further embarrassment by avoiding using its airspace, but the American and British imperialists have been allowed to use it to support Israel in whatever way they see fit.

“NOW IS TIME FOR PEACE,” wrote US President Donald Trump on Truth Social on Saturday. On the same day, the US carried out its biggest military attack on Iran in modern history. Trump was backed by European leaders, including his obedient servant in Downing Street, all of whom have been calling on Iran to show “restraint”, to “de-escalate” and to return to the negotiating table.

As I write these lines, the attention of the entire world is focused on one man. His every word is studied, dissected and analysed in the most extraordinary detail, in the hope that one might derive some sense as to what it may, or may not, signify.

In the early hours of Friday, 13 June, Israel launched a massive attack on Iran, taking out part of its military leadership and hitting some of its nuclear facilities. A second wave of Israeli strikes is ongoing at time of writing, hitting targets in Tehran, Keraj and Qom, as well as the Natanz Nuclear Enrichment Facility for a second time. This brazen act of aggression threatens to unleash a deadly regional conflagration with far-reaching consequences.

Since the 1st of Khordad, 1404 (22 May, 2025), Iran has witnessed a significant eruption of class struggle as lorry drivers and truckers launched a nationwide strike. This is a determined protest against intolerable working conditions and a spiralling cost of living crisis, highlighting the ever-deepening crisis of Iranian capitalism.

On Monday, the sailboat Madleen – part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) – was stormed in a nighttime raid by the IDF. Surrounded by Israeli speedboats and drones, armed combat units boarded the ship as its 12 passengers, including Greta Thunberg and French MEP Rima Hassan, sat in the main cabin of the boat with their hands above their heads, fearing for their lives.

On 5 June, 14 tonnes of machine-gun parts were due to be loaded onto an Israeli cargo ship at the port of Fos-sur-Mer in southern France, bound for Haifa, Israel. The day before, however, the CGT general union of dockworkers and port handling personnel of the Gulf of Fos issued a press release announcing its categorical refusal to load the 19 pallets of military equipment.

The Red Line demonstration in The Hague on 18 May attracted more than 100,000 participants and was the largest demonstration in the Netherlands since the trade union demonstration on Museumplein in October 2004, more than 20 years ago. It is clear that the mood in the Netherlands is shifting.

Two months after Benjamin Netanyahu broke the short-lived ceasefire, the situation in Gaza has reached catastrophic levels. Aid, medicine, and essentials have dried up thanks to Israel’s complete blockade, and the IDF’s relentless bombing has resumed. Countless humanitarian organisations have warned that the blockade is on the precipice of killing tens of thousands of people in a widespread famine.

“This land belongs only to the people of Israel. All of Gaza, all of Lebanon should be cleansed of these camel riders.” This chilling speech, delivered by an ultranationalist rabbi at a meeting overlooking the war-torn Gaza Strip, is just one example of the genocidal fervour expressed freely and with impunity by Zionist settlers in Louis Theroux’s latest documentary.

A month has passed since the short-lived ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came to a violent end on 18 March. Since then, Benjamin Netanyahu has once again upped the ante in his genocidal war on Gaza.