Iran is seventh on the list – lies and deception, as always

The negotiations in Geneva between Washington and Tehran on Iran's nuclear program seemed to be leading to success when, on February 28, 2026, American and Israeli missiles suddenly flew and the war against Iran began. This war has a long history.

In 1951, during the Pahlavi dynasty, the elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh nationalized the oil industry, which the CIA and the British MI6 countered with targeted actions. As a result, Mossadegh was dismissed and arrested in 1953 as part of “Operation Ajax,” preventing the establishment of a secular state and giving an international consortium access to Iran's oil reserves. In 1979, Shah Mohammed Resa Pahlavi left the country, revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned from exile in France, and Iran became an authoritarian Islamic republic.

Since then, the country has been the focus of attention for the US and the UK and has not been able to find peace. With the largest natural gas reserves and fourth-largest oil reserves, it has a considerable influence on the global supply of fossil fuels. It also maintains economic relations with Western countries and economic and military cooperation agreements with Russia and China. However, the oppressive sanctions imposed by the US, which have been joined by the UK and the states of the European Union, have led to serious economic problems.

In addition, as the largest regional power in the Middle East, Iran leads an unofficial military coalition that includes Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. This has earned it, like other countries that resist the devastating influence of the US and Western Europe, their bitter enmity. Seen in this light, the attack and assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Ruhollah Khomeini's successor, at the end of February 2026, which violated international law, was only partly about resolving the nuclear dispute.

As was the case in Minsk in 2015, when negotiations to end the conflict in Ukraine took place, which turned out to be a diversionary tactic by the Western alliance, the negotiations in Geneva were also merely a sham aimed at ending Iran's nuclear program. A quick look behind the scenes reveals that the US had very different plans. In 2007, four-star General Wesley Clark, former commander of NATO, revealed scandalous plans by the Bush administration to intervene in seven countries.

Clark said that immediately after the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, there was a plan for regime change and wars in the Middle East and Africa. In addition to Afghanistan, the list included Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and ultimately Iran. [1] The interventions against six countries were gradually “worked through,” leaving only Iran, and this war is now being made up for after years of intrigue, agitation, and sanctions.

Donald Trump seems to accept that the US has thus ignited another powder keg and that conflicts with Russia and China are escalating – proof that there is a long-term US strategy that functions independently of the respective presidency. Under Donald Trump's administration, many things have changed and become more chaotic. But Trump is continuing to pursue US policy in line with the economic and financial elites and the military-industrial complex as planned.

Once again, the US, this time with the support of Israel, has started a murderous war. What impact it will ultimately have and how it will end is currently impossible to predict. But German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who paid a visit to the US president on March 3, is obviously unaware of developments in Iran and the background to US aggression. International law notwithstanding, he considers the attack on Iran necessary and justified.[2]

The writer and journalist Dr. jur. Wolfgang Bittner lives in Göttingen. His book “Geopolitik im Überblick. Deutschland-USA-EU-Russland” (Geopolitics at a Glance: Germany-US-EU-Russia) was recently published by Verlag Hintergrund, Berlin 2025.

 Sources

[1] See Amy Goodman: Syria's Truth, March 6, 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkE8Gp-nWEs (accessed March 4, 2026)

[2] See www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhomZMUr_eI (accessed on March 4, 2026)