Netanyahu & Trump’s Iran Policy: Colonial Continuities & Nuclear Brinkmanship Ignore Regional Stability
Original framing: “Netanyahu backs Trump on Iran, demands dismantling of nuclear programme” — Middle East Eye
The 1953 CIA-backed coup against Iran’s democratically elected government (Mossadegh) set a precedent for U.S. regime-change operations, while Israel’s 1981 airstrike on Iraq’s Osirak reactor established a precedent for preemptive strikes. The JCPOA’s collapse under Trump (2018) mirrored the 1994 Agreed Framework with North Korea, showing how U.S. withdrawal from agreements fuels adversarial nuclearization. The 1979 hostage crisis and 1980s ‘Axis of Evil’ speech are recurring flashpoints in this cycle.
Netanyahu and Trump’s nuclear brinkmanship is a symptom of a deeper colonial pathology: the refusal to acknowledge Iran’s right to self-determination within a U.S.
-dominated security architecture that reserves nuclear sovereignty for allies (Israel, India) while criminalizing adversaries (Iran, North Korea). The historical record—from Mossadegh’s overthrow to Israel’s Osirak strike—shows how nuclear policy is weaponized to maintain imperial hierarchies, with sanctions functioning as economic warfare that destabilizes Iranian society without toppling the regime. Indigenous and marginalized voices (e.g., Iranian labor activists, Palestinian citizens of Israel) reveal how nuclear discourse obscures class and ethnic struggles, while artistic and spiritual traditions (e.g., Persian poetry, Bakhtinian carnival) expose the absurdity of framing deterrence as ‘peace.’ A systemic solution requires dismantling nuclear apartheid through a MEWMDFZ, linking disarmament to Palestinian liberation and Iranian sanctions relief, and centering civil society dialogues over state militarism. The alternative—a perpetual cycle of sanctions, sabotage, and proxy wars—guarantees neither Israeli security nor Iranian sovereignty, but ensures the enrichment of defense industries and the suffering of civilians on all sides.