Iran
We are in a War - Part 16
Renewed strikes on Iran that started on Saturday 28th February, have seen the international community deeply split. According to some the waging of war by the United States and Israel on Iran was and is illegal, including Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
According to Ellie Geranmayeh writing on behalf of the European Council of Foreign Relations, Donald Trump’s strikes are illegal and Europe should declare them so. She makes clear that Tehran had ‘appeared’ to be prepared to make significant concessions on its nuclear programme on the eve of the attacks according to the mediator, Badr Albusaidi, Oman’s foreign minister. Whether or not these concessions would be honoured remained to be seen.
Geranmayeh claims that the recent visit by Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House may have played a significant part in Trump’s decision to supposedly turn his back on putting an end to ‘forever wars’. In criticism of Trump’s call to the Iranian people to seize this as their opportunity to change their leadership, she claims that Iranians, rather than storming the streets asking for democracy, are more likely to be concerned with staying alive. She said that instead of staking their claim, they will choose to stay home. As the internet in the first 24 hours of the attack was cut to about 4% we have no way of verifying that Geranmayeh’s assumption is what has come to pass.
As of the morning of March 2nd 2026 the UK, France and Germany (the E3) had finally all agreed that their bases could be used by the US to launch defensive attacks on Iranian missile silos. It was made clear that this late move was in order to reduce the risk to our bases in the Middle East and in the Mediterranean - a defensive move rather than offensive. Keir Starmer, Prime Minister of the UK doubled down on his belief that the war on Iran was illegal in an address to Parliament in the afternoon of 2nd March. Iran had already spent the weekend bombing Western bases across the Middle East and Mediterranean region. Bases, airports and hotels in Iraq, Bahrain, Cyprus, Qatar, Israel, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have all come under retaliatory strikes. The families of military personnel at the Cyprus RAF Akrotiri base were evacuated to alternative accommodation.
The United States Air Force is reported to have lost three fighter jet aircraft but thankfully all the crews ejected safely. Three American service members have so far been killed in Operation Epic Fury according to Central Command. Qatari military confirmed that they shot down 2 Iranian fighter jets, 7 ballistic missiles and 5 drones also on the 2nd March.
So what is the war really about?