Iran facing defeat
(Dr Pentapati Pullarao)
Whatever words or disguises maybe used, Iran lost the war with Israel and USA. Iran agreed to a ceasefire on June 24, 2025, thus ending a stormy and violent story which started in 1979, when Ayatullah Khomeini ousted the Shah of Iran and took power. Definitely, the defeat of Iran will bring big changes across the world.
Iran has huge oil and gas reserves and is a very wealthy country. After Ayatullah Khomeini took over in 1979, he wanted Iran to become the biggest Islamic power and thus created various forces in many countries and took extreme positions. The Ayatollahs openly opposed America and Israel.
Events move faster than lightening. On June 13, 2025, Israel attacked Iran for the last 20 years, Iran has built a fearsome reputation as a great warrior, with dangerous terrorist proxies like Houthis, Hezbollah and Hamas. But within ,14 days Iran showed itself to be a poor warrior and lost badly. Iran is being called a “paper tiger“
Why Israel attacked:
In the last 43 years, the religious leadership of Iran constantly threatened Israel and always said “Death to Israel“. Iran constantly used Hamas to attack Israel and also Americans. But the threat from Iran became deadly when Iran started going for nuclear weapons.
Iran openly started developing atomic energy and everyone suspected that Iran would develop atomic weapons. Israel felt that the only way it can survive was to stop Iran from acquiring atom bombs. Even America and other Arab Muslim nations were against Iran getting very powerful. USA had an agreement with Iran that it will not develop atomic bombs. But everyone suspected that Iran was secretly developing atomic weapons.
So, Israel had a challenge to destroy the atomic weapon-making plants. To achieve this objective, Israel started war on Iran on June 13, 2025.
USA entering the Israel-Iran war:
America entered the Israeli- Iran whereas it saw a great opportunity to attack Iran and destroy its atomic plants. America felt that it will never get such an opportunity. America bombed the 3 Iranian nuclear sites. President Trump took a very bold step and did what many American Presidents wanted to do – stop Iran from becoming a nuclear power.
Iran’s situation
- The unexpected happened and USA and Israel launched surprise attacks on Iran. Iran was totally un-prepared, and its military was useless.
- The Muslim Arab nations did not rush help, as they secretly wanted Iran to be defeated.
- Iran had alliances with Russia and China. But Russia and China gave only help with words and did not offer real help.
- If Iran continued the war, then America and Israel would have relentlessly bombed Iran and their government would not survive. Iran wants its religious government to survive, which has been ruling Iran for 45 years.
Impact of Iran’s defeat on the world:
- Iran’s defeat is a very big victory for President Trump. For the last 15 years, America and Europe have been trying to get Iran to stop building nuclear weapons. Only President Trump attacked Iran and stopped Iran from becoming a nuclear country.
- Definitely, it will be the start of a new era in the Middle East. Iran created terrorist proxies like Hezbullah and Hamas to fight Israel and indulge in terrorist acts. Now that problem will be gone.
- Iran’s defeat is a big warning to rogue nations like Pakistan and North Korea, who have nuclear weapons that the world will not tolerate their threats to use nuclear weapons.
- Israel also gets big relief as it destroyed its biggest enemy Iran. This is a very big victory for its prime minister Netanyahu.
- Since there is no war, oil prices will come down.
- The USA has established its reputation that it is the only super-power today in the world. Russia and China do not have the strength to fight in foreign countries, with whom they have no borders.
Impact of Iran defeat on India:
- Ayatullah Khamenei supported Pakistan on Kashmir. Now Khamenei will have no influence. Iran in future will show less sympathy for Pakistan.
- India has a big interest in Iranian Chabahar Port. Since there is peace, India can develop the port and get access to Afghanistan and central Asia.
- Pakistan will understand that it cannot threaten India with atomic bombs. Like Israel, India can take action on Pakistan.
- The defeat of Iran will also see that there will be fewer terrorist forces, since Iran will not fund them now. This will help India, which faces terrorist threats.
Pakistan continues its comic role:
When Israel attacked Iran, Pakistan promised to help Iran. But its Army Chief Asif Munir went to USA and met President Trump. Immediately, there were great celebrations in Pakistan, that Trump will help Pakistan. But the next day, Trump bombed Iran and now that has led to big embarrassment for Pakistan, that they sided with USA over Muslim Iran. The USA simply used Pakistan Army Chief for a photo-opportunity to show Iran that Muslim countries are with USA.
Pakistan continues to entertain the world.
(Author is a Political and Economic Analyst based in New Delhi)