Bombs didn’t work. Will a blockade break Iran?

On 28 February, in the middle of ongoing nuclear negotiations, the US and Israel launched an attack aimed at regime change in Iran. They achieved some tactical objectives by extensively striking 13,000 civilian, political, economic and military targets, nearly 18 times more than when the US-led coalition attacked Iraq in the first Gulf War (1990-91). However, the airstrikes did not achieve their strategic objective of regime change. Instead, the US shifted toward threatening to push Iran “back to the Stone Ages” by targeting key civilian infrastructure and trying to control over its oil resources. These ambitious goals remain unmet, and both Washington and Tehran have agreed to a 14-day ceasefire while starting a new round of negotiations in Pakistan, with […]