Berlin, FRG (Weltexpress). The negotiations in Geneva between Washington and Tehran regarding the Iranian nuclear program seemed to be heading toward success when, on February 28, 2026, American and Israeli missiles suddenly struck and the war against Iran began. This war has a long history.
In 1951—still during the Pahlavi dynasty—the oil industry was nationalized under the elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, a move against which the CIA and the British MI6 took targeted action. Consequently, Mossadegh was dismissed and arrested in 1953 as part of “Operation Ajax,” thereby preventing the establishment of a secular state and granting an international consortium access to Iran’s oil reserves. In 1979, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi left the country, revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned from exile in France, and Iran became an authoritarian Islamic republic.
Since then, the country has been in the crosshairs of the U.S. and the British and has never found peace. With the world’s largest natural gas reserves and fourth-largest oil reserves, it exerts considerable influence over the global supply of fossil fuels. It also maintains economic ties with Western countries as well as economic and military cooperation agreements with Russia and China. However, the crushing sanctions imposed by the U.S.—which the U.K. and the European Union have joined—have led to serious economic problems.
Furthermore, as the largest regional power in the Middle East, Iran leads an unofficial military coalition that includes Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. This has earned it—as well as other countries resisting the devastating influence of the U.S. and Western Europe—their bitter enmity. Seen in this light, the attack in late February 2026—which violated international law—and the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the successor to Ruhollah Khomeini, were only partly about resolving the nuclear dispute.
Just as in Minsk in 2015, when negotiations to end the Ukraine conflict took place—negotiations that turned out to be a ruse by the Western alliance—the talks in Geneva were merely a sham aimed at forcing Iran to abandon its nuclear program. A brief look behind the scenes reveals that the U.S. had entirely different plans. In 2007, four-star General Wesley Clark, who had served as NATO’s Supreme Commander, revealed scandalous intervention plans by the Bush administration targeting seven countries.
Clark said that immediately after the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, there was a plan for regime change and wars in the Middle East and Africa. In addition to Afghanistan, the list included Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and ultimately Iran. [1] The interventions against six countries were gradually “worked through”; only Iran remained, and this war is now being carried out after years of intrigue, incitement, and sanctions.
Donald Trump seems to accept that the U.S. has thus ignited yet another powder keg and that conflicts with Russia and China are escalating—proof that there is a long-term U.S. strategy that operates independently of the current presidency. Under Donald Trump’s administration, many things have changed and become more chaotic. But Trump is continuing U.S. policy as planned, in the interests of the economic and financial elites as well as the military-industrial complex.
Once again, the U.S., this time with Israel’s support, has launched a murderous war. What impact it will ultimately have and how it will end is currently impossible to predict. But German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who paid a courtesy call on the U.S. president on March 3, apparently knows nothing about developments in Iran or the background of U.S. aggression. International law or not, he considers the attack on Iran necessary and justified. [2]
Notes:
The writer and journalist Dr. jur. Wolfgang Bittner lives in Göttingen. His most recent book, “Geopolitics at a Glance: Germany-USA-EU-Russia,” was published by Hintergrund in Berlin in 2025.
Source:
[1] See Amy Goodman: Syria’s Truth, March 6, 2012,www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkE8Gp-nWEs (accessed March 4, 2026)
[2] See www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhomZMUr_eI (accessed on March 4, 2026)
