In 1947, when the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) was constituted and the committee presented the Partition Plan for Palestine – Iran along with India and Yugoslavia opposed the plan, predicting it would lead to an escalation of unprecedented violence in the territories of the Southern Levant. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of the Imperial State of Iran gravely predicted that the partition would lead to generations of fighting. And bitter fighting is what both the Antisphere and the Irasosphere have seen all through the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the First Intifada, the second Intifada, the Palestinian Fedayeen insurgency, the 6 Day War, Yom-Kippur War, Lebanon War, Gaza War, Syria War, Israel-Hezbollah War and the Iran-Israel War.
IDEOLOGICAL CONFLICT OF ISRAEL AND IRAN
The political and ideological conflict between Iran and Israel predates back to Biblical times. The Biblical books of Isaiah, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Chronicles and Esther contain provenance or attestations to the life and experiences of Jews in Persia, the dominant nation of Western Asia for over twelve centuries, with three successive native dynasties – the Achaemenid, the Parthian and the Sasanian – controlling an empire of heterogeneous and unprecedented complexity. Persian Jews have lived in the territories of contemporary Iran for over 2700 years, since the first Jewish diaspora, when Shalmaneser V, the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel and sent the Israelites into captivity at Khorasan.
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL
Moving forward from the Covenant to the Current Era, after the establishment of the State of Israel in May 1948, Israel and Iran maintained close ties. Iran was the second Muslim-majority country to recognize Israel as a country. In accordance with the first Prime Minister of the State of Israel, David Ben Gurion’s concept of an alliance of the periphery, Israel viewed Iran as a natural ally, a non-Arab power on the edge of the perennially hostile Arab world. Iranian-Israeli trade, cooperation and military links were robust.
THE ROLE OF THE RUTHLESS AYATOLLAHS
If the Islamist advocacy for Palestinians materialized under Ayatollah Mahmoud Alaei Taleghani, founding member of the Freedom Movement of Iran – the Revisionist Zionism of Israel was advocated by Ayatollah Sayyed Abol-Ghasem Mostafavi Kashani, further crystallizing under Ayatollah Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, founder and the first Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Israel saw its international branding as an “enemy of Islam” and the “Little Satan”.
With the United States seampishly branded as the “Great Satan” and The Soviet Union as the “Lesser Satan”, the Satanic Axis of Evil was trademarked. Under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei, a staunch critic of Israel and of Zionism, his rhetoric included calls for Israel’s destruction and anti-Semitic tropes as well as “Marg bar Amrika” (Death to America).
THE MIDDLE EAST ERUPTS AGAIN – OPERATION EPIC FURY
On February 28th 2026, the United States and Israel launched a large-scale offensive against Iran after weeks of military build up and political impasse.
Under the declared objective to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon (after the planned termination of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action regarding Iran’s Nuclear Program) and eliminating imminent threats on Israeli and American soil from the Iranian regime, it has been substantiated and validated that the Israel Defense Force (IDF) strikes on Tehran killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Trump further urged the Iranians to capitalize on the attack as the “only chance for generations” to take over their government and move forward to a revolutionary political realignment.
THE IRANIAN RIPOSTE
Iran quickly retaliated by firing ballistic missiles at Israel and US facilities across the Middle East – including in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, descending the Middle East in political turmoil. Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, an exponent of Iran’s Reformist Faction, has declared it his legitimate duty and right to avenge the perpetrators and masterminds of this alleged historic crime. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps vowed revenge for the killing of the regime’s long-time leader and keep launching waves of strikes in the Mid-East region.
THE AFTERMATH
Bombing a regime to extinction is rarely an effective political strategy in geopolitics. The assassination of the Ayatollah will not kill the Islamic Republic. The Islamic Republic is an ideological system with a multi-layered elite base of support. The relative pontifical theocracy will likely survive, mauled and confused, but standing. The salutary lesson from this political misadventure is bidding farewell to the Disarmament movement in the SWANA region (South West Asia and Northern Africa). The repetitive escalatory cycle can only end if sane heads prevail in Tel Aviv, Tehran and Washington DC – but by all looks and narratives, there is little evidence of that.
INDIAN MUSLIMS SHOULD EXERCISE RESTRAINT
On the death of the Ayatollah, protests broke out in several parts of Jammu & Kashmir. Demonstrations were reported from Srinagar, Sonawari and Bandipora, where members of the Shia creed of Islam, marched on the streets holding pictures of the Iranian leader. Muslims across both spectrums of the Shia and Sunni division must remain placid and composed. The conflict between Iran, Israel and the United States is deeply entrenched in fanatic radical ideology and militant confrontational techniques. It has evolved from a decades-long “shadow war” of covert operations, cyber-attacks, proxy confrontations into a period of direct military engagement.
The Indian Muslims must be very cautious in the political conjuring given out by dogmatic shadow agencies calling for militant extremism in their prejudiced chauvinism. Against calls for “Do Not Remain Silent”, you must stay silent and mourn respectfully without indulging in any unnecessary iconoclastism and digital rage baiting. It must be remembered that the geopolitical fallout between Iran, Israel and USA is the result of their own geopolitical international strategy and zugzwang.
Dr Shadab Ahmed is an Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon, acclaimed columnist and author; renowned for his insightful writings on Indian History, International Relations, Geopolitics & Ethnic Culture. Views are personal.
