Six months after the United States and ‘Israel’ launched their war against Iran on 28 February, the conflict can be assessed not only by the damage inflicted or the number of missiles fired, but by the objective fact that Washington and Tel Aviv have failed to achieve their strategic objectives.

The project was far more ambitious than striking Iranian military and nuclear facilities. It sought to break the Islamic Republic’s deterrent capacity, trigger internal destabilisation, decisively weaken the Axis of Resistance and pave the way for a new regional architecture under Israeli hegemony and US military protection.

None of this happened as planned.

The Iranian government did not fall, the state did not collapse and Iran retained sufficient capacity to continue imposing heavy military, economic and strategic costs on its adversaries.

The war that was supposed to demonstrate the supremacy of the United States and ‘Israel’ has turned into a protracted war of attrition.

The war that was supposed to demonstrate the supremacy of the United States and ‘Israel’ has turned into a protracted war of attrition.

More importantly, the very regional system that the war was intended to consolidate has begun to reveal its weaknesses.

For decades, the Gulf monarchies have organised a significant part of their security around the US military umbrella.

The war exposed the limits of that guarantee. Bases, strategic installations, energy infrastructure and maritime routes became vulnerable precisely when the US had deployed enormous military power to the region.

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