TEHRAN, August 4. /TASS/. The conflict between the US and Iran has taken on a new, more complicated form, with Washington making the internal destabilization of the Islamic Republic its primary objective, Oleg Akulinichev, deputy chairman of the Russian-Iranian Business Council at the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, scholar and diplomat, said in an interview with TASS.
"The failure of the military strategy does not mean that Iran’s adversaries have abandoned their intentions. The conflict, like all such wars, is multifaceted. Hybrid warfare tools are now coming to the fore, with their goal being not so much the military defeat of Iran as its internal destabilization," he said, adding that "the situation resembles a chess match," with each side currently seeking new, creative, and unconventional ways to exert pressure on the other.
The war has not ended, it has simply shifted to a new phase of fierce military, diplomatic, and informational maneuvering, with each side attempting to impose its own version of how the conflict should unfold, the expert said. "Underlying this diplomatic game is a fundamental reality: while the strategic goals of the US and Israel may not have been achieved during the period of active hostilities, they remain unchanged," he stressed. That said, both sides have gone too far to simply back down, yet are too exhausted to continue a full-scale war, Akulinichev added.
