The criminal US-Israel war of aggression on Iran has pushed West Asia into a state of acute crisis and uncertainty. The last time Israel had attacked Iran in June 2025, it did not go according to Israel's expectations and the US had to join the war to bail Israel out. This time round, Israel has dragged the US into a joint war from day one, but in spite of the military and financial muscle of the US-Israel axis and its political domination over much of West Asia, not to mention the western world, once again the war does not seem to be moving according to the wishful script of Netanyahu and Trump.
Trump is in no position to justify this war even to his own supporters in the US. In fact, in 2024 he had won the presidential election by promising to focus on the economy and not going to war. Nobody believes in the American lie which talks of Iran posing a security threat to the US or any of its Nato allies. After the June attack on Iran, Trump himself had claimed to have destroyed Iran's nuclear programme. If the issue was about reining in Iran's residual nuclear potential, Iran had been ready to negotiate a diplomatic resolution. Indeed an agreement was very much underway in Oman, until Israel and the US sabotaged the process and launched a concerted attack.
The world of course knows the real reason behind the Trump-Netanyahu "Operation Epic Fury". It is the familiar US quest for regime change. Ever since the ouster of the pro-US Shah regime in February 1979, the US had been looking for an opportunity to regain control over Iran. After serial regime changes in Iraq, Libya, Syria, the US-Israel axis thought Iran was ready for a similar expedition. Iran has indeed been witnessing powerful struggles for change and the Khamenei regime has unleashed brutal repression to hold on to power. The courageous struggle of Iranian women against Iran's patriarchal theocratic order evoked enormous global goodwill. But Trump's invitation to the Iranian people to take over the reins of power after the assassination of Iran's supreme leader and several other key individuals around him did not trigger any revolt within Iran.
For all the scenes of jubilation among sections of the Iranian diaspora in western countries, inside Iran we see a mass outpouring of grief and anger over the 'martyrdom' of Ayatollah Khamenei and the massacre of Iranian girls in a primary school, a pattern of violence that is akin to the genocide of children and women in Gaza. The Iranian people are clearly not going to surrender their sovereign right to shape their own future to a regime change conspiracy scripted by Israel and its protector, the US. Having withstood the economic sanctions and military pressure exerted by the US-Israel axis for decades, and the Iranian people are unlikely to succumb to the current phase of vicious military aggression by America or the sinister operations of Mossad and the CIA.
The Iranian counter offensive against American bases around Iran has definitely started posing challenges to the US-Israel war machine. The US has already had to acknowledge some major losses, including three military aircraft which it claims to have lost to 'friendly fire' in Kuwait. The Trump-Netanyahu dream of a quick regime change in Iran has given way to the grudging recognition of a war which would last at least several weeks and cost some American lives, something that Trump now says is only to be expected in a war. The Gulf countries have begun to express their disquiet over the military and economic cost of the war, not to speak of the potential destabilisation of their own US-dependent regimes.
The longer the war continues, the bigger will be its disastrous impact on the world economy. Oil and gas prices are liable to soar and the supply lines to be disrupted. The war already looks like a regional war and if China truly means what it has said about supporting Iran in "defending its sovereignty, security, territorial integrity, and national dignity" the world could well be looking at a build-up towards a potential WWIII. India's concerns are much bigger and more specific as India's energy supply depends overwhelmingly on the volatile West Asia region and some ten million Indians work there.
The question of India's energy security and the physical safety of this huge contingent of expatriate Indian workers should thus require India to work proactively for an immediate end to the US-Israel aggression on Iran. But all initial indications suggest not just a deafening silence on the part of the Modi government but even a degree of complicity. The attack on Iran started shortly after Modi's brazen hobnobbing with Netanyahu in a shocking state visit to Israel and even after the assassination of Iran's supreme leader, the Modi government failed to utter a word of condemnation or even concern. There are even reports of India being indirectly dragged into extending military cooperation to the war.
The sinking of the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena as a result of a US submarine attack close to India's maritime boundary with Sri Lanka raises serious questions of the war already reaching close to India. The Iranian frigate had sailed into Visakhapatnam port on 16 February at India's invitation to take part in an international naval exercise and was torpedoed on its way back home after the exercise. Of the 180 people aboard IRIS Dena, 87 bodies have so far been recovered by a Sri Lankan rescue mission while 78 persons have been rescued wounded, 31 of them in a critical state. In spite of being the host country, India has failed to condemn the criminal action of the US submarine.
Beyond the ties of diplomacy, India and Iran, have had a long history of close cultural bonds and interaction. In the realm of contemporary international relations too, Iran has been a trusted friend of India. India siding with the US-Israel axis at Iran's worst hour of crisis is an indefensible foreign policy failure and abdication of responsibility on India's part towards a friend and fellow BRICS member country. Coupled with the Modi government's ignominious role on the question of Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and genocide of the Palestinian people, the support to the US-Israel axis in its war on Iran is a blot on India's foreign policy and betrayal of India's own national interests. We the people of India must stand with the people of Iran in support of their sovereignty and dignity, insist on an immediate end to all violence against Iran and hold the Modi government to account for its irresponsible and indefensible role.
