‘I Guess I Can Say I Am’: Trump Confirms He’s Considering Unprovoked Attack on Iran
Original article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
One analyst predicted Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz and attack oil installations “in the hope of driving oil prices to record levels” should the US strike.
US President Donald Trump on Friday confirmed that he’s considering launching an unprovoked military strike against Iran.
According to the New York Times, Trump was asked by reporters on Friday if he was considering attacking Iran, and he replied, “I guess I can say I am considering that.”
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The US has for weeks been sending fleets of warships, including the world’s largest aircraft carrier, to the Middle East in apparent preparation for a massive military operation against Iran.
According to a Friday report from Al Jazeera, the buildup is the largest by the US Air Force in the region since the 2003 Iraq War, and it includes deployments of E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft, F-35 stealth strike fighters and F-22 air superiority jets, and F-15 and F-16 fighter jets.
Trump has not given any justification for launching such an attack, nor has he asked the US Congress to approve it, even though the Constitution gives the legislative branch the power to declare war.
Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) have been pushing for a vote in the US House of Representatives on a war powers resolution that would require Congress to debate and approve any act of war with Iran.
It is also not clear what goals the president would hope to achieve with the attack. A Thursday CNN report indicated that Trump is now weighing several options ranging from “more targeted strikes to sustained operations that could potentially last for weeks,” including “plans to take out Tehran’s leaders.”
Trita Parsi, co-founder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, wrote in a Friday analysis of Trump’s reported attack plans that there is little chance that the president will be able to achieve a quick victory over Iran simply because the offers he has made to its government are nonstarters.
“Since the US strategy… is to escalate until Tehran caves, and since capitulation is a non-option for Iran, the Iranians are incentivized to strike back right away at the US,” explained Parsi. “The only exit Tehran sees is to fight back, inflict as much pain as possible on the US, and hope that this causes Trump to back off or accept a more equitable deal.”
Parsi acknowledged that there is no way Iran can defeat the US militarily, but could “get close to destroying Trump’s presidency before it loses the war” through a number of maneuvers intended to spike the price of oil, including “closing the Strait of Hormuz” and attacking “oil installations in the region in the hope of driving oil prices to record levels and by that inflation in the US.”
“This is an extremely risky option for Iran,” Parsi conceded, “but one that Tehran sees as less risky than the capitulation ‘deal’ Trump is seeking to force on Iran.”
Original article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
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Morning Star Editorial: Time for clarity – no support for a US attack on Iran
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/time-clarity-no-support-us-attack-iran
President Donald Trump listens during a Board of Peace meeting at the U.S. Institute of Peace, February 19, 2026, in WashingtonPRESIDENT Donald Trump has now assembled the largest US military force in the Middle East since the disastrous and criminal Iraq invasion in 2003.
It is not there for show. The chatter from Washington is that a US attack on Iran is now a “90 per cent” likelihood.
It is still possible that the deployment is simply to pressure the Iranian regime into complying with US demands regarding its nuclear power programme and its wider policy across the region.
But Trump has already attacked Iran once during his second term, and he is under pressure from the Israeli government to move towards overthrowing the regime in Tehran, something that would require military action on a far larger scale than previously, and co-ordination with pro-US political forces like the son of the deposed Shah.
So the danger of war seems imminent. The anti-war and labour movements here in Britain need to be clear-sighted.
Any military action by Trump, or Israel, or both would be a gross violation of international legality and a criminal imperialist adventure which would risk an escalating conflict across the Middle East. The peoples of the region, including the Iranian people, would be the losers.
…
If Trump and Starmer want a peaceful and stable Middle East, Israel is the rogue power which needs to be curbed. Instead it is armed, supported and diplomatically protected by the imperialist powers.
These are not nuances, but the heart of the crisis in the Middle East. The anti-war and solidarity movements here must not be distracted from their main responsibility — challenging the imperialist interventions and alliances of the Starmer government — by the temptation to sit in moral judgement on those who are its targets.
The future of Iran is for the Iranian people alone to determine. US or Israeli military intervention must be firmly opposed, and the British government pressed to dissociate from any such plan.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/time-clarity-no-support-us-attack-iran
Iran temporarily closes the Strait of Hormuz
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/iran-temporarily-closes-strait-hormuz
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (right) and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi (left) hold a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, February 16, 2026. Photo: Iranian Foreign Ministry via APIRAN announced the temporary closure of the Strait of Hormuz today for live fire military drills as its negotiators held another round of indirect talks with the United States in Geneva over its nuclear programme.
It was the first time that Tehran has announced the closure of the key international waterway, through which 20 per cent of the world’s oil passes, since the US began threatening Iran and rushing military assets to the region.
Iran said its Revolutionary Guard had started a drill early on Monday in the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman — all crucial international shipping routes.
It was the second time in recent weeks that Iran has held a live fire exercise in the Strait of Hormuz.
As the talks began, Iranian state media announced that the country’s military had fired missiles toward the strait and would close it for several hours for “safety and maritime concerns.”
The Tasnim news agency, which is close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, said missiles launched inside Iran and along its coast had struck their targets in the strait.
…
Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/iran-temporarily-closes-strait-hormuz
New wave of solidarity with Venezuela sweeps across Italy
Original article by Ana Vračar republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.
Dozens of cities in Italy organized actions in solidarity with Venezuela, demanding the release of President Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores
One month after the US attack on Venezuela, dozens of Italian cities once again took to the streets in support of the Bolivarian process, demanding the release of President Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores. Organized under the international slogan “Bring them home!”, the decentralized actions represent a stepping stone toward a national assembly in Rome on Sunday, February 8, as well as permanent mobilization against war and rearmament.
Students and youth made up a significant portion of participants in Tuesday’s demonstrations. “In response to the United States’ military action, a clear expression of its desire to reassert control over the continent, we once again stand alongside the Bolivarian Revolution […] against US imperialism and to demand the immediate release of Maduro and Flores,” the organizations Cambiare Rotta and OSA wrote on the day.
Read more: One month after the attack on Venezuela: the resurgence of imperialist “diplomacy”
Left groups also denounced the Trump administration’s threats and attacks against other countries in Latin America, particularly Cuba and Colombia, warning that the strategy is rooted in a model of imperialism that harms people all over the world. Marta Collot, spokesperson for the left party Potere al Popolo, emphasized that the protests were also aimed at opposing a “model based on extractivism that seeks to seize the resources of other countries.”
“The ambitions of the US are not limited to Venezuela, but extend to all the countries of Nuestra América, which are to be turned into mere territories for resource extraction, from oil to rare earths, from vast freshwater reserves to a ‘disposable’ workforce,” Potere al Popolo wrote ahead of the protests. Venezuela, with its socialist transformation, “has always been a thorn in their [the West] side, against which they have directed all weapons of hybrid warfare, from economic and military aggression to cognitive warfare,” the party added.
“We condemn this attack, which was not only an attempt to seize Venezuela’s oil, a nationalized oil, but also an effort to restore US hegemony over Latin America, which the US continues to regard as its backyard,” activists from Potere al Popolo Turin said on the day.
“But Latin America does not bow to US imperialist ambitions,” they added. “It resists, as shown by the massive crowds in Caracas, where the Venezuelan people are not celebrating, as our subservient media would have us believe, but are instead fighting loudly for the release of President Maduro and the primera combatiente.”
Read more: Trump’s ultimatum to Cuba: no fuel until surrender!
“We are here to say it once again: hands off Venezuela,” Collot said. “Today we are facing a paradox in which Trump not only allows himself to kidnap President Maduro, but also threatens half the world, from socialist Cuba to Iran, Colombia, and even Greenland.”
“All of this must end,” she concluded. “We need to reverse course and focus on policies that genuinely support workers and peoples, promote solidarity, and oppose the war-driven agenda that is pushing us toward the brink of World War III.”
Original article by Ana Vračar republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.