Read our editorial “Iran Has the Right to Defend Itself!”
Monopoly outlet Axios reports that ultra-reactionary President Donald Trump refrained from striking Iran in mid-January after Nazi-Zionist Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Trump that Israel would be unable to defend itself from an Iranian counterattack.
A US attack involving air and naval strikes on Iran was imminent on January 14, according to the US and Israeli officials interviewed by Axios, with Trump threatening to attack Iran supposedly over the government’s killing of protesters amid a nationwide uprising.
In December, protests erupted in Iran in response to the country’s economic crisis, exacerbated by US sanctions and war. The protests quickly spread across the country and transformed into violent mass rebellions, with US imperialism using it as a pretext to justify aggression. Both US and Israeli officials have admitted their intelligence assets are operating among the protests, aiming to hasten the overthrow of the Iranian government to install a government subservient to their interests.
On January 14, the US evacuated some forces from its Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar after an Iranian official threatened Iran would counterattack US bases if Iran was attacked by the US. Al-Udeid is the US’s largest military base in the Middle East, and was struck by Iranian missiles in June 2025 in retaliation for US attacks on Iranian nuclear energy sites. Following the latest threats from the US, Iran closed off its airspace in anticipation of US strikes.
However, Netanyahu told Trump that Israel would not be prepared to defend itself from an Iranian counterattack, expressing concerns that the planned US attacks on Iran would not be strong enough. Likewise, Crown Prince of the country-selling government of Saudi Arabia, Mohamed bin Salman, had concerns that the aggression would compromise stability for US lackeys in the Middle East.
US and Israeli officials told Axios that Netanyahu’s concerns as well as the threat US forces faced from Iranian resistance were significant factors leading to the cancellation of attacks.
The US has since begun to relocate more of its military assets to the region for the possibility of further aggression against Iran.
Image: Donald Trump at his inauguration. Credit: Gage Skidmore.
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