Human rights do not seem to matter to Washington most often.
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Oman urged Donald Trump not to launch airstrikes against Iran in a last-minute lobbying campaign prompted by fears that an attack by Washington would lead to a major and intractable conflict across the Middle East.
On the other side India is doing the balanced and tight-rope walking.
India's foreign policy engine room led by PM Narendra Modi is going with "caution" and there are reasons for that.
Certain things are more complicated.
Things are changing rapidly, from extreme war and peace, like a dizzying game of chess.
The foremost reason driving American interest in Iran is geopolitical.
The US is a superpower but China and Russia want to limit that reach of the Americans.
It's unclear what Israel's aims were in the first place—as there was no evidence of "imminent" nuclear threats, and Israel deployed a great deal to weaken the Iranian regime.
We also know Iran remains politically apart from the Gulf states. But Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has undertaken a series of visits to Arab capitals. In 2025, he visited Bahrain, the first Iranian minister to do since 2010.
He also visited Cairo four times. This is also significant as the two sides had severed diplomatic relations in 2016.
It is being argued in certain quarters that even if the regime in Tehran survives after this series of bloodbath, it is only a matter of time before Iran rediscovers its true self. It's a fact of life that all the Gulf states are further aware of the disruption Iran could cause to maritime traffic in the Gulf.
There are other players. In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, the US and the European Union’s main foreign policy chief said the G7 members were “gravely concerned” by the developments surrounding the protest.
The statement, published on the EU’s website on Thursday, said the G7 were “deeply alarmed at the high level of reported deaths and injuries” and condemned “the deliberate use of violence” by Iranian security forces against protesters.
The G7 members “remain prepared to impose additional restrictive measures if Iran continues to crack down on protests and dissent in violation of international human rights obligations,” the statement said.
The overall operation, dubbed "Rising Lion" by the Israeli government, relied on the activation of clandestine intelligence teams, pre-positioned weapons caches and other capabilities that had lain dormant inside Iranian territory for weeks or even months, Israeli officials told The Washington Post.
In retrospect we can mention ---
according to 'Time' magazine, a statement—by advocates of a democratic Iran that answers to its people—condemned the attack on Iran by Israel and voiced "serious opposition to foreign interference."
It's also true that Trump's withdrawal from Obama's negotiation pact had emboldened Iranian hardliners who in April alone carried out at least 110 executions, and crowded Evin Prison with political prisoners—some of whom were reportedly injured by Israel's strike on the facility.
Since the cowardly attack on Israeli civilians by Hamas on October 7, 2023 was celebrated and made the focal point of a global solidarity movement for Palestinian Statehood and the destruction of Israel, West Asian developments have been viewed through the contorted prism of anti-Zionism.
The colossal damage to the self-esteem of the Iranian State by Israel’s retaliation — that included the collapse of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, the emasculation of the dreaded Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the weakening of Iran’s nuclear capabilities — was not sufficiently grasped. The tears shed for Gaza and the visceral hatred for Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, distracted attention from the shifts in the region’s balance of power.
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