Azeem Ibrahim has said “decentralised hierarchy” in the region means war would continue “irrespective” of US-Israeli bombings that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
He told GB News: “If the US is trying to achieve regime change, that is a very difficult proposition, unless they have boots on the ground, which has already been ruled out.”
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“Iran is a country of 90 million people. That’s four the size of Iraq. Without boots on the ground, even if you manage to take out the leadership, there’s a very decentralised hierarchy. The could continue the war irrespective of that.”
“There’s no doubt that the United States has had some stunning tactical successes. Immediately, they managed to take care of the entire leadership and at the same time they’ve managed to take a large portion of the Navy.”
“But the question we have to ask is, what is the objective here? What is the US trying to achieve? And that is not very clear.”
“If they’re trying to take care of nuclear weapons, the US claimed that that was taken care of in the last bombing campaign. The strategic objectives are not very clear as of yet. The US may have them, and they’ve not articulated them. But as it stands at the moment, it’s just not clear to the general public.”
On US President Donald Trump’s claims that the IRGC have not struck any US ships and vessels, he said: “That’s probably very accurate. The Iranians have very little ability to actually strike US ships. US aircraft carrier groups are probably the most protected assets in the world, and they are far out of range of even the most sophisticated hypersonic missiles Iran has.”
“And the fact is that Iranian ships on the land are just sitting ducks for the US to take care of. So I would imagine this is extremely accurate.”
Mr Ibrahim also said US forces entering foreign territory would not be disadvantageous: “Iran is no match whatsoever. The US is just so preeminent in terms of its military power.”
