What is US President Donald Trump's epic stake in the Middle East, the British newspaper "Financial Times" suggests in an editorial, BTA writes in its review of the Western press.
For an American president who returned to office with a promise to end wars, Donald Trump has shown a rather large appetite for the use of American power. His war against Iran eclipses all his other interventions in ambition, recklessness and risk.
In his quest to overthrow the hardline regime in Iran and reorder the Middle East, he has embarked on one of the boldest ventures undertaken by an American president in decades. Trump did so with a callous disregard for international law and made only the most cursory attempts to justify it to the American people and the world. Rather, he launched a fateful war of his own choosing. America, the region and, most of all, Iran may bitterly regret it if, as wars often do, it goes off the rails.
Few in Iran will mourn Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of joint US-Israeli air strikes, the Financial Times reported. Several of his subordinates were also killed, including the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The fall of an autocracy can happen with extraordinary speed. But overthrowing an authoritarian government usually requires either a ground operation or a popular uprising. Trump has made it clear that he is not committed to the former; rather, he is unceremoniously calling on the people of Iran to rise up, the British publication notes.
Most Iranians would undoubtedly like to start fresh. But even if the regime were to collapse, and that remains a big question mark, the region is haunted by the specter of Iraq in 2003 and Libya in 2011. The collapse of their dictatorships led to anarchy and civil war. Iran is a complex, multi-ethnic society of 90 million people with the potential for catastrophic disintegration. Such a scenario is one reason why Iran’s Arab enemies fear American pressure for regime change.
Iran has been a nightmare for American presidents since 1979, when revolutionaries stormed the American embassy in Tehran. Since then, Tehran’s support for militias acting in its name has cast a shadow over the Middle East, especially Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is perhaps the only clear winner in this military campaign. He has long sought regime change in Iran. A weak and divided Iran would serve Israel’s interests, the Financial Times points out.
Trump appears to have made the decision to go to war because the Iranian regime was at its weakest, not because it posed an immediate threat.
Trump is likely hoping that, as in Venezuela in January, the US will be able to decapitate the regime and strike a deal with insiders. That scenario has not yet materialized in Iran. Now, waging an existential war for which it has long been preparing, the regime has struck across the region, attacking Israel and US bases in the Persian Gulf and disrupting oil supplies.
Trump may soon decide to declare victory, hoping to move on. But as former US presidents have found out, it is easy to start a war in the Middle East, but much harder to finish one. This military campaign was called Operation Epic Fury. A more appropriate name, however, would be Epic Bet, the Financial Times points out.
Israel strikes Hezbollah in Lebanon after the Iran-allied group fired rockets across the border, another British publication, the Guardian, headlined.
Israel today carried out powerful air strikes on Hezbollah-controlled areas in Lebanon, the Guardian reported. southern suburbs of Beirut after the Iran-backed group fired missiles and drones at the Jewish state in response to the assassination of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Beirut residents were awakened by the sounds of about a dozen explosions at 03:00 this morning as Israel struck three different locations in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital.
Explosions shook windows in the capital and were heard from miles away. People in southern Lebanon heard warplanes and bombs.
"Hezbollah" said in a statement that it had fired missiles and drones at the "Mishmar al-Karmel" missile base near Haifa around midnight in "revenge" for the assassination of Khamenei and "in defense of Lebanon and its people.".
The Lebanese government quickly condemned Hezbollah's decision to attack Israel without consulting the state. Without specifically naming the armed group, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said that "the country will not allow itself to be dragged into new adventures."
"The rocket fire from southern Lebanon is an irresponsible act that threatens Lebanon's security and gives Israel a pretext to continue its aggression," Salam said in an op-ed in "Ex".
For weeks, Lebanese authorities have been trying to prevent Hezbollah from to join an Israeli-US war against Iran after the Jewish state sent a message to the Lebanese government that any attack would lead to a large-scale response against the entire country.
One of the first risks of Trump's Iran strategy is already emerging, the headline of the publication "Politico".
Oil prices jumped more than 10% last night, highlighting the political risks of US President Donald Trump's military strikes against Iran.
The main US crude oil market opened at $75 a barrel after the US and Israel attacked Iran on Saturday, killing the Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and prompting retaliatory attacks on several oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz, through which more than 20 percent of the world's seaborne crude passes, notes "Politico".
Market analysts and geopolitical consultants warn that oil prices could remain high as the Gulf war continues, and that this will quickly affect the price of gasoline at the pump.
"Everyone in the region involved in the war knows that Trump's Achilles heel is high oil prices," said Michel Brouhard, head of politics and geopolitical risks at "Kpler", an energy and commodities research firm.
Russian officials are also watching to see if the U.S. actions will lead to higher prices in their favor. "Oil will soon cost over $100 a barrel," wrote Kirill Dmitriev, a Kremlin envoy, on Saturday. The rise in oil prices comes at a time when Republicans in the US are facing the political reality that more and more Americans believe that Democrats are the ones who are most committed to reducing energy prices, notes "Politico".
By igniting a new war against Iran, Donald Trump is making his riskiest bet, the French newspaper "Figaro" headlines.
According to the American newspaper "Wall Street Journal" Israel took advantage of a meeting between Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior officials, including the commander of the IRGC, to assassinate Iran's supreme leader.
Donald Trump announced the death of Iran's supreme leader on Saturday, a few hours after the operation against Iran began. "Khamenei, one of the most evil characters in history, is dead", the American president wrote on his social network "Truth Social". "He could not escape our intelligence services and our high-tech tracking systems", Trump wrote, adding: "Thanks to our close cooperation with Israel, neither he nor the other leaders who were killed with him could do anything".