The war now unfolding between Iran on one side and the United States and Israel on the other did not begin merely as a confrontation over nuclear enrichment or missile development.

Those issues were presented to the world as the immediate justification, but the deeper strategic objective has long been understood by many analysts: regime change in Tehran. The assumption guiding years of sanctions, covert operations, cyber warfare, and now open military confrontation was that if Iran’s leadership could be decapitated, its missile and drone infrastructure destroyed, its naval capabilities crippled, and its economy suffocated, the Iranian people would eventually rise against their own government and replace it with a system aligned with Western and Israeli interests.

This strategy reflects a strategic vision that Israeli leaders, particularly Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have advocated for decades. Netanyahu repeatedly warned that Iran represented the greatest existential threat to Israel and argued that Tehran’s nuclear ambitions must be stopped before they matured. Yet critics of this argument note an important historical reality: when the earliest calls for confronting Iran began more than four decades ago, Tehran possessed neither a meaningful missile arsenal nor sophisticated drone capabilities. Its nuclear program remained limited and subject to international monitoring through the International Atomic Energy Agency. From that perspective, many observers believe that the nuclear narrative became a strategic instrument used to justify a broader geopolitical goal—the weakening or transformation of Iran as an independent regional power.

The operational plan appeared straightforward. Remove key leaders, destroy strategic military facilities, and allow internal unrest to complete the process of political change. Early phases of the conflict seemed to follow that script. Massive air strikes targeted military installations, command centers, missile launch sites, and naval bases. Thousands of targets were struck in rapid succession, creating the impression that Iran’s military capabilities were collapsing and that the regime might soon lose control.

The United States soon escalated the campaign........

© Pakistan Observer