“Total and complete victory. 100 percent. No question about it.” With these words, Donald Trump described the two-week ceasefire with Iran announced last night.

The US-Israeli war on Iran and the subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz have created a crisis in the world economy and further exposed the fault lines between US imperialism and its Russian and Chinese competitors.

Four weeks into the US-Israel war of aggression against Iran, the war aims of US imperialism have not only not been achieved, but they look further away than before. Trump is faced with an impossible situation. If he cuts his losses and declares victory now that would represent a massive humiliation for US imperialism, and a massive personal blow. But any attempt to escalate would be fraught with danger and carry serious risks with only a slim chance of success. At the present time he appears as if he is attempting to do both at the same time.

The war in the Middle East, ignited by the US and Israel’s full-scale attack on Iran, has dealt a hammer blow to the world economy. Asia, though bearing no responsibility for Trump and Netanyahu’s reckless adventure, is among the heaviest casualties of the economic fallout. As the war rages with no end in sight, Asian workers must be ready to resist any attempt by the ruling class to make them foot the bill.

Seeing an opportunity, on 22 September 1980 Saddam Hussein invaded Iran. The Iranian military had largely dissolved following the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the Islamic Republic, less than a year old, was far from having consolidated its power. The Islamists faced the grueling task of rebuilding the Iranian bourgeois state, as power remained effectively in the streets.

Drunk with success in Venezuela, Trump thought that the same methods could be used to force Iran to submit. Either a threatening naval force encircling the country would lead to capitulation, or a short sharp decapitation strike would produce regime change through the emergence of a new leadership willing to comply with imperialists’ demands (a ‘Delcy in Teheran’ as some put it).

Following the US and Israel's scandalous, unprovoked attack on Iran, we are republishing the following article, which was first written after the 12-Day War in June 2025. It remains every bit as true as then.

In the morning of Saturday 28 February, Tehran was shaken by a series of loud explosions as US and Israeli missiles struck the capital of Iran. Clouds of smoke were also seen rising from Tehran, Qom and other Iranian cities, announcing the commencement of war.

Once again, the eyes of the world are fixed on every word and gesture of the man in the White House, Donald J. Trump. With one third of the entire American Navy assembled in the region, and with Trump oscillating between threats and calls for negotiations, the question on the lips of millions is: will there be war with Iran?

The western imperialist vultures are circling the Iranian regime. Donald Trump has already threatened to intervene in Iran three times since the protests began. Meanwhile, the Israeli state has sent ominous messages through Mossad’s Farsi X account, including: “Let's come out to the streets together. The time has come. We are with you. Not just from afar and verbally. We are with you in the field as well”. 

On 29 December, the Iranian rial fell to a record low against the dollar, sparking a bazaar strike in Tehran with massive processions in the main streets chanting the slogans: “Close, close!”, “Death to the dictator!”, “Death to high prices!”, and, “This is the final message; the target is the entire regime.”

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.

“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.