MoU Stacked in Holding Pattern as US Pivots to Plan ‘B’

Alastair Crooke, 3 July 2026

Plan ‘A’ was to topple the Islamic Republic which was presented as nothing more than a fragile house of cards. That collapse — it was expected — would ripple through, and take down several connected Axis of Resistance fronts, according to the analysis of Mossad and interlinked Israeli power centres in the US. (Certain US officials did, however, entertain doubts).

The prediction of a popular uprising in Iran has proved to have been a strategic mistake of such bearing that per contra, it catalysed a stronger, more defiant and assertive Republic. Even Israeli experts admit that the false premise underlying the war has generated a new balance of power in the Middle East. Until then, a top Israeli military commentator (Alon Ben David) could say, Israel was the ‘go-to’ address in the Middle East for the world’s interests; but that from now on, the ‘go-to’ state is, and will be, Iran. That comment exemplified the extent to which a Rubicon had been crossed.