President what is the plan? There is a clamor for explanation as to what comes next. Concerned allies across the region are demanding the Trump team show its strategy.
Americans have already been killed in this war, with oil prices rising and the Gulf mounting a toll on US allies and their economies, so the pressure on President Trump is mounting.
A publicly stated strategy is unconvincing. Donald Trump It has forced the Iranian people to seize control and demand that Iranians with guns hand them over.
Iranians in Berlin in a demonstration supporting US and Israeli attacks on Iran. Image: AP
So far, the opposite has happened – far from surrendering their weapons, Iran‘s security forces used to brazenly shoot more Iranians to celebrate the death of their despised dictator.
Live updates of strikes
By the end of day two, unnamed sources in the US administration were insisting that there was a more insidious plan. Not so much to overthrow the regime as to divide.
With the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei If dead, the hope is that more moderate elements will step forward, stabilize the country and negotiate more pragmatically.
It will be Venezuela model Beheading and co-opt. There, the Trump administration seized on the dictator and claimed to find more favorable aspects in Nicolás Maduro’s regime.
It’s too early to gauge the success of that strategy, but Trump’s team can hope to replicate something similar in Iran.
In his Truth Social post, President Trump hinted that it may already be operating in Iran. Some members of Iran’s security forces are giving up the fight, he said.
Iran, however, is not Venezuela. The regime is more coherent and larger than Maduro’s. More than 200,000 armed men are thought to be on the payroll. They are in it together.
What is happening on the ground is unknown. Israeli intelligence seems to have infiltrated the country and is almost certainly trying to compromise the integrity of that regime. There will be both diplomatic and covert efforts to co-opt elements within its leadership.
Read more:
What we know so far about airstrikes
Which Iranian officials are dead?
Attacks shut down Middle East airports
We do not know what efforts are being made to seduce individuals in the Iranian government in return for saving his life.
As of now, it is unclear what the plan is and whether it is working. In an emerging absence, the future for Iran and the region looks extremely uncertain.
