Fantasies of Regime Change and a Region on Fire
US imperialism and Zionist fascism have lit a fire and will watch the whole region burn
Illustration by Jamhoor, created using publicly available images
Bloodthirsty American and Zionist imperialists have at last murdered Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei. A section of Iran’s diaspora, led by the son of the former Shah, Reza Pahlavi, is celebrating – but their lurid dreams of regime change will not be accomplished merely by Khamenei’s death.
As reported by Iranian media, Khamenei had already been killed in the early hours of the US-Israeli aggression on February 28, but for the next 48 hours, Iran continued intense attacks on Qatar, Bahrain, Dubai (UAE), Jordan, Saudi Arabia. This means Iran’s regime not only survives but continues to target US installations and imperialist puppet regimes across the Gulf. These regimes, on the other hand, are using their drones to intercept Iranian missiles, including those headed to Israel. The status quo continues to be exposed—all while bloodshed escalates. Most notably, almost 200 innocents were killed by US-Israeli missile strikes on a school in the southern Iranian province of Hormozgan.
“Iran’s regime not only survives but continues to target US installations and imperialist puppet regimes across the Gulf”
Blood was shed too in protests across Pakistan against the US-Israeli assault and the killing of Khamenei. Ten protestors at the American consulate in Karachi were fired at and killed, probably by US marines. In Islamabad, at least two protestors lost their lives and dozens were injured in clashes with local police as they tried to make their way to the US embassy. It is old news that Pakistan’s masses have consistently opposed US diktat while the ruling class has chosen servitude to empire. The same is true across the “Muslim Ummah”.
We have already seen how the regimes in Pakistan and the Gulf Kingdoms have sold Palestine out through the “Board of Peace”. Iran was the only Muslim country that refused to capitulate and renege on the Palestinian cause—in fact, it offered support to organisations like Hamas. The war now launched on Iran by the US and Israel has further exposed these contradictions between the masses and ruling classes across the Muslim world.
“Pakistan’s masses have consistently opposed US diktat while the ruling class has chosen servitude to empire. The same is true across the ‘Muslim Ummah’”
Pakistan’s current ‘hybrid’ regime seeks to absolve itself by making vague statements in support of Iran, even as it clamours to assure its Gulf partners of its unwavering support in the face of Iranian missile attacks. Meanwhile it bombs Afghanistan, continuing the attacks it started earlier this week. It claims this is required for Pakistan’s security, because Afghanistan is sheltering ‘terrorists’. It claims Afghanistan is playing into India’s hands. But what are we to conclude, for instance, from Pakistan’s attacks on Bagram airbase, given Trump’s repeated claims on this base for the past few months?
The people of Afghanistan and Pakistan’s Pashtun peripheries have long been sacrificed in bloody wars—either in the name of jihad, or the so-called ‘war on terror’. Both Pakistan and Afghanistan will now advance muscular state nationalisms, both invoking Islam, both demonising the other. Innocent blood will continue to be shed on both sides of this border.
“Pakistan’s current ‘hybrid’ regime seeks to absolve itself by making vague statements in support of Iran, even as it clamours to assure its Gulf partners of its unwavering support in the face of Iranian missile attacks”
The immediate future is one in which Iran, Afghanistan, and the entire region will become further engulfed by hatred, war, and state oppression. US imperialism and Zionist fascism have lit a fire and will watch everything burn. While they continue selling us their weapons and work to shift all the burdens of the crumbling global order onto those already crushed by its weight. We must remember that all this is driven not merely by ideology, but the logics of capital—whether realised through war or apparently ‘civilised’ economic activities, whose purpose is to exploit both human labour and natural resources, especially precious and ‘rare’ minerals, for unbridled profit.
What will now happen in Iran is up to the Iranian people to decide. Those of us who struggle with Pakistan’s working masses and peripheral nations will continue to stand in solidarity with the people of Iran, of Afghanistan, of Palestine, of Cuba, of Venezuela, with the Kurds, and those struggling for freedom and liberation around the world. We must work to connect our struggles with theirs.
It is clear that Empire and its lackeys are intent on laying waste to nature and human civilisation—it remains our urgent task to keep the flame of peace, equality, and freedom alive.
Aasim Sajjad Akhtar is an associate professor of political economy at the National Institute of Pakistan Studies at Quaid-i-Azam University in Pakistan. He is the author of The Struggle for Hegemony in Pakistan: Fear, Desire and Revolutionary Horizons.