Musanjufu Benjamin Kavubu
The roots of this crisis go very deep. Ever since the US pulled out from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) in 2018, Washington went through the motions of wanting to negotiate again but in reality shifted gears. Obama put together the JCPOA or what is know as the Iranian Nuclear deal that was signed between Iran on one side and P+1 that include USA, France, United Kingdom, China, Russia plus German (EU), but he undermined the deal, when Trump took over he killed it and Biden had no time for the issue at all. By spring 2024, Israeli warplanes had been bombing Iranian targets like the bombing of Iran’s consulate building in Damascus that killed a couple of Iranian generals, while US officials swore up and down they had “nothing to do” with it.
The word was out, the US could use Israel as its proxy without getting its own hands dirty. Which make Israel USA military base in the middle East. The whole colonial entity is designed to serve western and imperialists interest in the regional. Is the backbone of capitalism of the oil and energy sector in the region.
The United States chokes Iran through an Israeli hammer, always keeping the nuclear issue at the center of the stage to fool everybody. If nuclear weapons were indeed the obsession, then North Korea (which already has the bomb) would be in the sights every day, but that is not the case in the far east. Rather, we have Washington sharpening knives on other issues.
One of the grand unseen agendas is the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Which is China’s gigantic undertaking to build roads, railways, pipelines and ports across Asia, Africa and Europe along some sort of new Silk Road. Notably, much of the BRI route goes through Iran. China and Iran have even signed a 25-year cooperation deal (amounting to some $400 billion) to further deepen this link. For Washington, all paths through Iran are paths around US power. The American elite openly fears China’s BRI will “undercut its influence” by creating an alternative trading order. In tangible terms, that means a direct China-Iran trade corridor that enables Tehran to export oil to Beijing and enables Chinese goods to reach Europe without encountering US naval blockades. In May 2025, for example, the first freight train rolled from Xi’an, China into Iran. In one stroke it cut shipping times from 30–40 days to just 15 days and avoided the US-controlled Strait of Malacca and Red Sea chokepoints.
Analysts immediately noted this was a geopolitical coup of sorts “flying in the face of American sanctions” the new rail line would “undermine America’s influence in the region”. Briefly put, a China-Iran trade boom is bad news for American economic hegemony. The US is afraid that if Iran becomes one of the chief hubs of BRI, US-client Gulf states will be undermined and China will place an overlay of infrastructure and commercial accords over US power. No wonder, then, that some American hard-liners seem determined to slow or halt these developments by destabilizing Iran. This comes at the backfoot of China making sure Iran and Saudi Arabia restore diplomatic channels through its global security initiatives while the USA actively sets the region on fire.
No less important is Iran’s support to the Palestinian resistance. Tehran has never merely issued declarations in the name of Palestine, it has provided arms, training and funds to groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad. In fact, according to a recent analysis, “today Iran provides support to a number of Palestinian groups, including Hamas and PIJ”. This assistance is strategic (Iran views Israel and the US as main enemies and uses surrogates to bully them) and ideological (Jerusalem is of vast religious importance to Muslims). The dynamic is compared to the way Cuba’s Fidel Castro once brokered African freedom fighters. In the 1970s and 80s, for example, Cuban troops in Angola drove back South African apartheid forces and won Namibia’s independence.
Nelson Mandela himself publicly thanked Castro personally for Cuban aid. Fifty years later, white supremacist world over still seethes at this loss. The analogy today is not hard to see: a strongly anti-colonial Iran standing up to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank is damaging to the West’s beloved Israeli project (the long time settler colonial state). In an incendiary speech, Iran’s Supreme Leader recently called Israel a “cancerous tumor” in the Middle East. You look at the streets of Tehran and elsewhere and see Hezbollah or Palestinian flags along with Iranian flags a visual demonstration of unity. This is not just rhetoric. Iran even sent military advisers to instruct Palestinians, and apparently helped Hamas build its rockets. Briefly, Iran has been living up to its pro-Palestinian bark for decades, just as Cuba did for the freedom of South Africa.
The United States does not want that. Washington would rather have Iran playing the role that Qatar or Turkey play a convenient host for Hamas spin doctors, but not an ally on Israel’s terms. Both Qatar and Turkey have ties with Hamas (e.g., Hamas’s deposed leaders had lived in Doha and Istanbul), but under constant pressure from the US, they are forced to keep a “diplomatic” distance. The American senators have traditionally berated these nations: in the latter part of 2023 a US Senate release grumbled that Turkey “embraced Hamas leaders with open arms” and called for Ankara to extradite them, it being “unbecoming of a NATO member” to have terrorists on its soil. Likewise, US officials threatened Qatar that if hostages are not released, “there is no reason for Qatar to continue hosting Hamas’s political office.”. Washington retaliated by sanctioning an Iran-based Hamas financier and even targeting IRGC commanders for supporting Hamas in Gaza. The signal is clear: Iran needs to tamp down any real support for Gaza. If Iran wants the best relations in the world (or simply not economically strangulated), it must keep its hands out of Gaza’s conflict, just as Qatar has been told it must stay out of it on a hands-off level beyond low-level mediation. Iran’s failure to comply with this expectation is another reason it’s in America’s crosshairs.
Look at the nuclear component. Iran’s nuclear program is hailed as the great evil, but this is illusion. If nukes were the problem, the US would threaten or attack any country that defies the nonproliferation regime on a regular basis but it does not. North Korea has been developing nukes for years and the US has never bombed the nuclear plants. Pakistan, India, and Israel are themselves undeclared nuclear states that US allies kow-tow to.
Iran, to be sure, never even made a bomb, and its program has been open to international inspections. The US obsession with Iran’s uranium enrichment was always selectively applied. Even Israel’s own attacks seem to be timed for political gain: in the past 74 hours Israel made a massive assault on Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility, detonating critical equipment and murdering top IRGC leaders with Iranian scientists and they may even kill the Ayatollah in this round. Iran has lashed back with missile strikes, and even accused the US of being involved but Washington shrugged it off publicly according to the state department. If de-nuking nukes really was the top mission, the US would have deterred that attack (and all the ones it’s allied with). Instead, the Natanz attack conveniently happened when Israel was bogged down in Gaza, suggesting Israel and therefore the US employed the bomb story as cover to topple Iran.
Finally, consider the wider colonial context. For an anti-imperialist, the Palestinian liberation struggle is one of the remaining anti-colonial struggles. Israel’s rule over Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied lands is globally condemned as a new apartheid. In fact, South Africa’s ICJ suit against Israel refers to it as “75-year apartheid” explicitly. If the Palestinians were to gain full equality either in an integrated binational state with equal rights or in two states that accorded each other equal treatment it would be the demolition of Israel’s colonial project.
That would shake the foundation of “rule by the West and its allies” in the Middle East, ending the only remaining outpost of apartheid. For Western capitalism and the powers that drive it, that would be a calamity. So they do everything in their power to preserve the current arrangement using wars, sanctions, and proxy attacks to sabotage any germ of justice.
In summary, neither the “nuclear threat” nor any pure military justification explains fully Washington’s position. The US has far more imperial designs that include containing Chinese influence via the Belt and Road, and extinguishing any Palestinian freedom that might threaten the Israel Western axis. The reality on the ground is that China-Iran new rail links, US sanctions against Iran for pro-Palestinian behaviour, Pakistani-style double standards, even attacks on coalition troops (as in the DRC ambush that killed South African peacekeepers shortly after Pretoria sued Israel at The Hague) all suggest one thing, that US is using Israel to stifle China’s ascent and to stifle Palestine’s freedom. To an anti imperialist eye, the purpose of all this is clear. Complete parity with Palestinians would pull the final great colonial illusion apart and would deal the capitalist world order a serious blow. That outcome is exactly what the US and its friends are bent on stopping, so they play the Middle East wars ruthlessly treaty or no treaty, nuclear deal or no nuclear deal.
Sources
Trump’s 2018 exit from the JCPOA nuclear deal — confirmed by Reuters, “Trump says U.S. pulling out of Iran nuclear deal – May 8, 2018”.
Israel’s strike on Iran’s consulate/embassy in Syria (2024) — reported by Reuters, “Iran says Israel bombs Iran’s embassy in Syria, kills commanders” (April 2, 2024).
New China–Iran railway launch, part of the BRI — covered by Reuters, “US sanctions? Rail gives China and Iran other options” (May 28, 2025) and specialeurasia.com, “How Will Iran‑China’s Corridor Impact Eurasian Connectivity?” (June 9, 2025).
Iran’s active support for Palestinian groups — analyzed by European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), “Iran, Hamas and Islamic Jihad: A marriage of convenience”.
Cuba’s military support for African liberation — detailed on Democracy Now!, “The untold story of Cuba’s support for African Independence”.
US pressure on Qatar and Turkey to curb Hamas presence — reported by Reuters, “After Hamas rejection … US asked Qatar to expel group” (Nov 8, 2024) and “US warns Turkey against hosting Hamas leaders” (Nov 18, 2024).
US sanctions on Iran-linked Hamas financiers — from Reuters, “US aims at Iran links with sanctions on Hamas financial networks” (Jan 22, 2024).
South Africa’s ICJ case and peacekeepers in the DRC — by Al Jazeera, “ICJ hears South Africa’s genocide case against Israel over Gaza war” (Jan 11, 2024).
Israel’s 2025 strike on Iranian nuclear facilities — covered by Reuters, “Iranian commanders and nuclear scientists killed in Israeli strikes” (June 13, 2025).
Nuclear hypocrisy: US targets Iran, ignores North Korea, Pakistan, Israel — noted in various Reuters/Al Jazeera analysis pieces on nuclear policy inconsistencies.
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