The war against Iran is a chance to bolster Netanyahu’s fledging right-wing credentials. Tehran’s response to Israel’s offensive in the last two days has been muted.

Promising the Iranians that the Zionist regime will pay for its attacks on Iran’s sovereignty and killing several key members of its defence forces and nuclear scientists, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has retaliated by striking Tel Aviv and other cities with missiles and drones with minimal damage.

Israel’s assault was a classic military strategy that will go down into military annals as a carefully planned, clandestine ambush from within Iran. The ambush destroyed a portion of Iranian offensive capabilities, especially the air defence system, within a matter of minutes. The deception has surprised not only Iranians but those who thought Iran was no “paper tiger".

The strategic deception plan was apparently the work of Mossad agents who established drone bases in and around Tehran, the nerve centre, and other cities. Apparently, it was done so stealthily that Iranian leaders didn’t even know what hit them according to Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Only hours later, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, under a new chief, could muster enough strength and confidence to strike Israel. Many missiles were intercepted outside Israel’s airspace, reportedly by non-Israeli forces.

Israel’s offensive was hybrid warfare par excellence. It involved deception, prepositioning of offensive assets within Iran and a co-ordinated employment of command, control, communication, intelligence and cyber warfare which prepared the ground for the IDF jets to bomb critical military and civilian targets.

With complete control of the air space, Israel has won the early battles with zero casualty to its pilots and aircraft. This is unlike what happened in the recent India-Pakistan air duel, where Pakistan claimed it used cheap Chinese-made missiles to down the costly French Rafales.

Israel’s offensive was aimed at neutralising and disabling of Iran nuclear-weapon programs, ballistic missiles and military facilities. Israel has also reportedly bombed oil depots and refineries.

Tel Aviv’s mission, that initially included the killing of key defence officials and nuclear scientists, which has been going over many years, has now included regime change. Netanyahu has called for Iranian citizens to rise against the regime.

Tehran should have learnt from the killing of General Qassem Soleimani (2020), President Sayyid Ebrahim Raisi (2024), and the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyah (2024) in a safe house in Tehran and the deaths of many other nuclear scientists.

Iran and Israel are locked in a broader regional contest, and the nuclear issue is one facet of that struggle. Israel is unhappy with Iran’s activities in Lebanon (Hezbollah), Syria, Iraq and its aid to Hamas as Tel Aviv views them as threatening its security.

Iran is ideologically opposed to Zionism — not just in rhetoric, but by funding and arming groups that confront Israel militarily.

In turn, Israel has a strategic interest in weakening Iran’s economy, breaking its regional alliances and disrupting its ability to project power. After the US invaded Iraq (apparently advised by Netanyahu), Israel has been determined to finish Iran off. The attack on 13 June was the climax of its offensive. Next on Israel’s target list could be any other Arab nation, including Egypt that has gone to war with Israel at least four times since 1948.

In the current crisis, Israel has used Iran’s nuclear program as an excuse to eliminate Iran. In this sense, the nuclear issue masks Tel Aviv’s broader geopolitical goals: containment, destabilisation and preservation of strategic superiority.

The Israeli air attacks will complicate other global issues like international trade. Incidentally, the Israeli offensive came days after a Chinese freight train arrived in Tehran in May 2025 from Xian.

The new strategic land route is designed to transport oil and other goods from Iran to China bypassing all maritime choke points under US control. The Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s total oil exports pass, is likely to be closed to international navigation.

Reeling under pressure from the inability to deal with the impacts of President Trump’s unilateral tariffs and political violence in Los Angeles and other major cities in the US, Israel’s offensive could indirectly undermine his “trade deals”, for example, with China that has been supplying Iran with critical missile and drone parts, technology, rocket fuel and other incendiaries.

As a chief supplier of arms and weaponry to Iran, Russia is likely to join the fray and reassert itself, following diplomatic losses in Syria.

While Israel has on many occasions shown its capability to conduct surgical strikes into other countries on its own, in this case, it rides on the back of a powerful ally. Israel also received support from some Western powers and local Arab states that are at odds with Iran.

It is apparent to many that the nuclear issue in Tehran functions as a narrative tool for Israel. While Iran’s nuclear weapon program raises security concerns, it does not pose an immediate threat to Israel. While Iran has ambitions to become a nuclear power like Pakistan and India, whose nukes are within striking range of Tel Aviv, Tehran has yet to build a nuclear bomb.

Iran seeks to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. As a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it has the explicit right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes (Article IV).

The NPT also does not prohibit uranium enrichment for civilian purposes (like energy production or medical isotopes), as long as it’s under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards. Interestingly, Iran has been subject to intrusive inspections by the IAEA which verified Iran’s compliance multiple times from 2015 to 2018.

When Trump withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018, Iran renewed its uranium enrichment program. The IAEA found Iran in breach of its safeguards, which Tehran denied. The IAEA report provided the impetus for Israel to pre-emptively invade Iran and the cancellation of the US-Iran nuclear talks in Muscat, Oman.

The true drivers of Israel’s attack are geographical rivalry and domestic politics. Internally, the opposition to Netanyahu’s right-wing policies is growing stronger by the day.

Israel’s focus on Iran’s nuclear capability serves Netanyahu’s personal agenda and the wider goal of limiting Iranian influence in the region, especially post-Arab Spring when traditional Arab power centres weakened.

Iran’s uranium enrichment program is the excuse for regime change and to bolster Netanyahu’s fledging right-wing credentials.

The war between Israel and Iran is expected to be long and involve other powers in the region and the big powers. What happens next is anybody’s guess, and the continuation of the war will be painful, not only for both parties, but the rest of the world.

A quick exit from Iran is unlikely. It could another be another Gaza in the making.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.