For more than four decades, Iran's ruling theocracy has perfected the art of plausible deniability. Murder, sabotage, hostage-taking, and terrorism have been carried out through a web of proxies stretching from Lebanon to Yemen, from Iraq to Gaza. Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and an array of Shi’ite militias served as expendable instruments, allowing Tehran's clerical rulers to wage war while pretending innocence. That pretense has finally collapsed.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the regime's ideological army and chief instrument of repression, has stepped into the open. Missile and drone strikes launched across the Gulf have exposed the regime's true character beyond any lingering doubt. Tehran claimed it sought American military bases. Reality tells a far darker story. Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan have all endured attacks on civilian infrastructure, including power stations, desalination plants, and vital public utilities upon which millions depend for survival. These were civilian targets. Their destruction serves no legitimate military objective. They provide electricity, drinking water, healthcare support, and essential services for ordinary families. Under the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law, deliberate attacks against such facilities constitute war crimes.

For years, many governments argued that dialogue, engagement, and concessions could moderate the Iranian regime. Every fresh outrage was met with another diplomatic initiative, another package of incentives, another round of fruitless negotiations. Every concession merely emboldened the ayatollahs. The latest attacks reveal a regime driven by revolutionary fanaticism rather than strategic calculation. Tehran seeks fear. It seeks chaos. It seeks regional domination through intimidation. Any nation standing outside its sphere of influence becomes a potential victim.

Perhaps the greatest irony lies in the identity of those now under attack. Bahrain,........

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