Iran Strikes Back — Strategic Depth Counters Deception

Tehran turns survival into strategic momentum after massive Israeli strike

For over eight agonising hours, Iran was blind. A devastating Israeli cyber-attack fused with electronic warfare suppression paralysed its integrated air defence network.

Missile warnings screamed, but fire control went dark, command links offline. In that existential void, Israeli missiles and drones poured in, striking at will. With air superiority established, Israel went straight for the jugular — a complete decapitation of the Iranian leadership across the army, navy, airforce, intelligence services and nuclear programme. This was a regime change operation, on a scale not witnessed before.

The playbook was familiar – Gaza, Lebanon, Syria – but the scale? Unprecedented. Residential blocks became targets; generals slaughtered in their beds. Then more precision strikes: nuclear scientists — identities reportedly compromised by IAEA-Israel collusion — and university lecturers eliminated. Some, entire families wiped out. This was the decapitation.

The systematic destruction of Iran’s hard power followed instantly. Above ground — Nuclear sites, military bases, factories, missile launch sites and energy infrastructure – pulverised. Hundreds of targets across Iran struck. Seventy-eight Iranians killed, over three hundred wounded in 24hrs. This was the knockout blow – but it failed. Iran was down but not out.

Iranian technicians hunted for solutions under missile and drone strikes — their country’s survival hinged on cracking Israel’s electronic sabotage.

Then the hidden blade: Israel’s smuggled drone fleet launched from commercial trucks near command centres and nuclear sites — one-way attack drones, FPVs, loitering munitions. Years of infiltration; not improvisation. By dusk, an Israeli rout seemed inevitable.

Until — Iranian air defences flared back online. Radars locked. Missiles ripped skyward. In that moment, Israeli air superiority ceased.

By nightfall the fightback had begun. Iranian retaliation bypassed the vaunted layers of US-sponsored air defence. Waves of Iranian missiles rained down. Nevativ, Ovda, and Tel Nof airbases – homes to F-35s, F-16s, F-15s, command centers – suffered direct hits.

The Israeli Defense Ministry building in Tel Aviv, HaKirya, was struck twice. The Security Ministry building hit. Over 150 targets hammered — military bases, missile production facilities, weapons factories.

Iran’s latest Arash-class drones were also used, some of them hitting their target.

The initial Israeli toll: three dead, over hundred and seventy injured. Panic set in. Netanyahu and Defence Minister Katz reportedly went into hiding. The Israeli army scrambled, calling up the 146th Reserve Division, the "Iron Fist" and "Etzyoni" reserve brigades, deploying them north.

The shekel tanked, the Tel Aviv stock exchange plunged, banks leading the losses. Oil and gold surged.

Iran’s warning to the US, UK, France and Germany was unequivocal — “Any country that participates in repelling Iranian attacks on Israel will be subject to the targeting of all regional bases of the complicit government, including military bases in the Persian Gulf countries and ships and naval vessels in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea by Iranian forces.”

Fragments of a US SM-3 missile recovered in Iran. Jordan’s abrupt shutdown of a civilian airport to facilitate US arms shipments to Israel. British and American tankers reportedly refuelling Israeli jets over Iraq. And Moscow’s UN ambassador: “The UK permitted use of its Cyprus airbase for strikes.” These are not allegations. These are facts on the ground.

Washington’s negotiation charade. British bases in Cyprus — confirmed by Moscow’s UN envoy — launching Israeli strikes. Hundreds of US precision bombs stockpiled in Israel. UK and US tankers refuelling jets over Syria. IAEA-Israel collusion, revealing the identities of nuclear scientists. The mask is off — this isn’t Israel’s war. It’s a coalition assault — Washington, London, Paris, Berlin — led by West Jerusalem.

Another regime change war, packaged differently. As Ret. Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, ex-Pentagon analyst, bluntly put it: “This is a neocon agenda being played out, not a MAGA peace agenda." Bluntly, the peace mask was a deception.

Initial reports of F35’s being downed over Iran and at least one Israeli or American pilot being captured appear credible.

Iran canceled Sunday’s nuclear talks in Oman. Why negotiate with the hand holding the knife? Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei stated plainly —

“Our current priority is to confront the aggression…participating in any negotiations with a party that is the main supporter and accomplice of the aggressor is fundamentally meaningless…The enemies of diplomacy and peace imposed an unjust war on the Iranian people… Despite its repeated claims about dialogue and diplomacy, the US directly supported the aggression.”

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz’s threat – "Tehran will burn" – echoed hollow against the backdrop of Iranian technicians bringing their air defences back online, and security forces intercepting trucks laden with smuggled drones inside Iran.

Netanyahu’s endgame is clear: drag the US into a full-scale war with Iran. And he found his mark in Trump. “Every President over the last two decades has refused to green light an Israeli attack on Iran. Trump did, despite campaigning on a peace platform.

The ruse of negotiations, the US stalling, bought Israel critical time. Middle East Eye revealed the US discreetly supplied "hundreds of Hellfire missiles" just before the attack. Netanyahu trapped Trump.

Former US diplomat Chas Freeman nailed the tragic irony: “This is a classic case of an action justified in terms of preventing something, is actually the cause of something happening…If there was ever a moment to push Iran towards a bomb – the very thing Israel claims to prevent – this is it”.

Sabah Al-Mukhtar highlighted Iran's asymmetric power: "Iran has strategic leverage over the US" – proximity to US military bases, oil fields, the Strait of Hormuz. They have options.

Israel's strike on South Pars – the world's largest gas field – changes everything. Tehran now weighs closing the Strait of Hormuz. Do it, and oil prices would spike catastrophically – 21% of global supply instantly severed.

The Ukraine parallel chills — drone strikes disabling defences from within; covert ops planting weapons near pipelines. Identical tactics, first tested on Russia. Now deployed against Iran.

Washington’s diplomatic dance with Tehran now looks identical to its "talks" with Moscow – a smokescreen for escalation. If this works on Iran, it’s a blueprint for Russia tomorrow.

US pundits warn Trump — aiding Israel’s war is a “middle finger to MAGA voters”, Responsible Statecraft noted. But the neocon machine is in motion.

A new Middle East war ignites, lit by the usual suspects. Iran, a multi-ethnic, multi-confessional civilisational state, faces immense internal security challenges – a vulnerability Israel exploited to smuggle in its drones.

The West’s hypocrisy is naked — attacking Iran for a nuclear weapon it doesn’t possess, confirmed by the very US intelligence and IAEA whose collusion enabled the strike.

The recent anti-Iran resolution by IAEA was just an excuse for Israel’s attack. Why shouldn't Iran pursue the bomb now? They’ve gained nothing by restraint.

The victor and vanquished in this war will take time to emerge, yet the Global South watches a familiar script unfold — Western diplomacy masking regime change. The test of strength is underway; real diplomacy awaits its bloody conclusion.

The war for the future of West Asia has begun.