It was around 9.45 am, Iran Standard Time, on Saturday, 28th February 2026, when Israel launched a large pre-emptive strike on Iran. Coordination was done with the USA, which also participated with missiles, drones and other military assets.

This happened within 48 hours of the statement given by Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdulrahman Al Thani that “significant progress” had been made in the Geneva talks. This followed his statement on CNN to Christiane Amanpour on 19th February 2026 that “a US-Iran deal was very close”. Thus, instead of giving diplomacy a chance, Israel attacked Iran.

This was the second time that an attack had occurred during positive nuclear diplomacy. On 13th June 2025, while parleys were being held between the USA and Iran, Israel launched a major strike on Iran, which later came to be known as the “Twelve Day War”.

The fundamental questions which arise are: why is this war taking place? And how will it impact the future not only of the Middle East but the entire world?

Over the next five columns, I will unpack the historical, geopolitical, legal, strategic and military dimensions of this ongoing confrontation.

Iran, historically called Persia, is one of the oldest and most continuous civilisations in human history. Archaeological evidence shows organised settlements as early as the fourth and fifth millennia BCE. By the first millennium BCE, the Medes and Persians had emerged as the dominant forces. Cyrus the Great created the Achaemenid Empire in the sixth century BCE. It was then one of the largest empires on the planet.

Alexander the Great conquered Persia after the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BCE, which ended the first Persian Empire. However, Persia remained a major regional power. After the Arab conquest of the seventh century, Persian culture, language, scholarship, and history influenced the Islamic world. In 1501 CE, Shah Ismail I, the founder of the Safavid dynasty, declared........

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