LONDON: The war that generations of diplomats, generals and spies had tried to avoid began on Saturday morning, when waves of US and Israeli aircraft and missiles struck targets across Iran, including in Kermanshah, Qom, Isfahan, Tabriz and Karaj, in what President Donald Trump called a “massive and ongoing” campaign.
For nearly half a century, the US and Iran have circled each other through covert action, proxy wars, sanctions and sporadic clashes, but never tipping into open conflict. That balance has now collapsed.
Ajax, Eagle Claw, Nimble Archer, Prime Chance, Praying Mantis, Midnight Hammer and now – in collaboration with Israel’s own Operation Lion’s Roar – Operation Epic Fury.
There has been no shortage of US military operations against Iran or Iranian forces in the Gulf ever since the two countries became sworn enemies following the overthrow of the pro-Western Shah by the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
The seeds of that revolution, and the subsequent emergence of Iran as a destructive force in the Middle East, were sown in 1953. Operation Ajax, a coup engineered by America’s CIA and the UK’s MI6, overthrew Iran’s democratically elected prime minister, Mohammed Mosaddegh, who had attempted to nationalize the British-owned Anglo-Persian Oil Company.
