Ezequiel Peressini, a leader of Socialist Left/Left Front Unity (FITU)
11 March 2026. The bombings by the United States and Israel on Iran have escalated into an open war with which imperialism seeks to deepen its counteroffensive in the Middle East. Donald Trump is improvising to face Iran’s response to the war and the time it is taking.
During the early morning of 28 February, missiles from the United States and Israel rained down en masse on Iran. The bombings reached the capital, Tehran, and several other cities in the country. In Minab, one of the Tomahawk missiles launched by the United States struck the Shajare Tayyebeb Girls’ Primary School, killing 168 girls and young women, which, according to Amnesty International, could constitute another war crime. In Tehran, another missile hit the residence where Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was staying, killing the man who had served as Iran’s supreme leader since 1989 and whose son, Muktha Khamenei, replaced him on 8 March. These unilateral attacks against Iran had resulted, as of 5 March, in the deaths of more than 1,097 civilians, including 181 children, and left more than 5,400 wounded, including at least 100 minors (Hrasna reports to the BBC).
Despite the technical and military disparity, Iran has responded by exercising its legitimate right to defend itself against these criminal attacks. It launched attacks on US military bases in Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, thwarting Trump’s original objective of forcing Iran’s surrender and regime change in just four days of bombing. Iran has launched missiles at Israel, penetrating the Iron Dome with limited military impact but with a strong political impact by sounding alarms and demonstrating Israel’s weaknesses. Netanyahu extended the systematic attacks to Lebanon, causing more than 570 deaths, 1,400 injuries, and 759,000 displaced people.
A new, uncontrolled expression of the imperialist counteroffensive
The false pretense of US national security (which is more than 11,000 kilometres away from Iran, too far for Iran to attack directly) and the recurring lie that Iran possesses atomic bombs sustain this entire multi-million dollar and criminal operation. All this imperialist rhetoric seeks to conceal the fact that Trump yielded to pressure from Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu, just as he did during the “12-Day War” in June 2025.
Israel aims to undermine the US and allies to push its colonising and military plans in Gaza, Palestine, Lebanon, and southern Syria. In exchange for imperialist services, the United States seeks to gain as much control as possible over its oil and political interests in the region. On 28 February, Trump announced a four-day lightning military operation that is already failing. He claimed his objective was to end Iran’s nuclear capabilities, then to seek negotiations, only to declare his goal was to impose “regime change” and called on the Iranian people to rise up. None of this has happened, and Trump is once again falling into major contradictions, revealing the weakness and improvisation of his political and military plans and, so far, his inability to launch a successful ground invasion that would guarantee the imposition of a new pro-imperialist government.
The war adds fuel to fire of the imperialist crisis
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has caused a rise in oil prices and a greater political crisis. Iran produces between 3.3 and 3.5 million barrels of oil per day and exports over 1.5 million barrels daily. The closure of the strait, through which between 20% and 30% of the world’s oil passes, had a strong impact on the price of a barrel, taking it above $100 on Monday, March 9, and possibly generating a potential global inflationary surge, although it is currently under control.
Due to the criminal nature of the bombings of Iran, Trump has not achieved unanimous political and military support in the European Union, which remains divided and fraught with tension. Emmanuel Macron announced the deployment of the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle from the North Sea to the Mediterranean to form an “advanced deterrent” alongside the United Kingdom, Germany, and other countries, to intervene indirectly in the event of a closure of the Strait of Hormuz and its economic repercussions. However, two NATO members refused to cooperate. Spain rejected the use of its military bases by the United States to attack Iran, denouncing their illegality, while Italy, governed by Giorgia Meloni, also decided not to join the French initiative.
Meanwhile, China and Russia offered only diplomatic statements. Simultaneously supporting Iran’s leader and urging a war solution with Trump, Putin also seeks Trump’s help for Ukraine to surrender occupied territories. China is seeking to avoid further confrontations with Trump, while using the Strait of Hormuz to supply its large oil imports from Iran. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi declared that “this was a war that should never have happened and a war that benefits no one,” and that China is “the world’s most important force for peace, stability, and justice.”
The United States is seeking allies across the political spectrum to strengthen its counteroffensive against Iran. Currently, it has the support of the oil monarchies and is trying to embolden the leadership of the Iraqi and Iranian Kurdish movements. The far right supports sending White Helmets to militarise Gaza, views Iran as an enemy, and Milei calls himself the world’s most Zionist president.
Let’s fight for the defeat of the United States and Israel and the victory of Iran
The war that the United States and Israel are waging against Iran and also against Lebanon is an imperialist aggression against an oppressed nation. From the Socialist Left and the IWU-FI, we stand for the defeat of the United States and Israel and for the victory of Iran. We offer this support to the oppressed nation and the Iranian people from a position of complete political independence, without endorsing the government or the regime of the ayatollahs in Iran. An independence revealed in our internationalist support for the mobilisations and strikes of women and the entire Iranian people for their rights and demands against the government.
The demonstrations against the aggression multiply in different countries. On 8 March, the global women’s and dissident movements incorporated the rejection of the attacks against Iran into their slogans. In the United States, massive protests against the war occurred in more than fifty cities. The government allocates more than one billion dollars daily to the military machine to sustain the offensive, yet it denies help to the impoverished people to counter inflation. Social anger and political polarisation are growing. The crisis is deepening from below: more than 60% of the American population rejects the war, while tensions are rising in Congress and even within the Republican Party in response to Trump’s request for new budget authorisations to continue the conflict. The political cost of the war promises to be high. In London, a massive demonstration marched toward the US embassy.
Stop the criminal bombing of Iran by the United States and Israel!
No to aggression, Israeli troops out of Lebanon!
The global community will express international solidarity until the imperialist counteroffensive of Trump, the genocidal Netanyahu, and their accomplices falls.
