A Further US Attack on Iran Would be Pointless Kabuki

Alastair Crooke, 31 July 2025

A US President, beset by the Epstein story that refuses to lie down and die, and under pressure from domestic hawks because of a visibly collapsing Ukraine, has been letting off a blunderbuss of geo-political threats across the board. Firstly and principally at Russia, but secondly at Iran:

"Iran is so nasty, they're so nasty in their statements. They got hit. We cannot allow them to have nuclear weapons. They are still talking about uranium enrichment. Who talks like that? It's so stupid. We will not allow it.”

Escalation with Russia is clearly on the cards (in one form or another), but Trump has also threatened to attack Iran’s nuclear sites -- again. Were he to do so, it would be ‘gesture politics’ entirely removed from the reality of Iran’s present circumstance.

A further strike would be presented as setting back — or finally halting — Iran’s capacity to assemble a nuclear weapon.

And that would be a lie.