FRANCE 24What’s the plan and does it go beyond dropping bombs from the sky? On Day 3 of the US and Israeli campaign that’s killed Iran’s supreme leader, the United States insisting there will be no boots on the ground. But while the US defense secretary talks of nuclear installations and missile launchers, the U-S president’s spoken of laying the groundwork for regime change. Already, the escalation’s gone well beyond last June’s 12 days of bombing raids.
Did the Pentagon properly prepare for Tehran firing not just on Israel alongside its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah but also targeting Gulf states with missiles landing as far away as Cyprus? The missiles have shut down Qatar’s gas production, damaged at least one oil field in Saudi Arabia and shut the Strait of Hormuz, passageway that ships more than one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas?
We’ll hear the Trump administration’s rationale for starting this war, weigh the unintended consequences that might result… and whether a US president who’s so often used his military to push red lines – from the 2020 assassination of charismatic Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani to the seizing of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro – can use of force as he pleases against an Islamic Republic that back in January proved it was unafraid to slaughter its own people by the thousands if that’s what it takes to ensure its survival.
