A major war erupted in the Middle East this week when the United States and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran, killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and at least forty senior Iranian officials – reportedly within the first five minutes of the bombing campaign on Saturday morning.

Day seven. As more figures in the Iranian regime are hunted, hundreds of police and paramilitary bases continue to be bombed, along with Iran’s ballistic missile and drone launch sites, storage facilities and naval fleets.

The legal justification put forward by President Donald Trump – that Iran posed an imminent threat to Tel Aviv and Washington – is widely disputed. Accounts from the Trump administration about the war’s aims have appeared contradictory. The president initially spoke of regime change, urging the Iranian people to rise up and seize what he called a once-in-a-generation moment. Yet his secretary of defence insisted it was anything but regime change.

It has also been a week that has seen the conflict spread across the Gulf and beyond. Iran retaliated with missile and drone strikes across eleven countries where US bases or troops are stationed, or where governments are accused of aiding Washington.

Governments around the world scrambled to evacuate tourists after hotels, as well as airports in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, were struck. Fuel depots, embassies and energy infrastructure were also targeted by Tehran in Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan. A drone attack also targeted a British military base in Cyprus.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced it had closed the Strait of Hormuz – the corridor through which around one fifth of the world’s oil passes.

The week has also seen Israel resume its bombing campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, striking the capital Beirut and once again sending troops into the south. The move came in response to rockets and drones fired by the Shia Muslim militia group, which had threatened to avenge the killing of the Ayatollah.

As the conflict appears to spread somewhere new almost every day, the United Kingdom, France and Germany have pledged what they describe as “defensive action to protect Gulf countries”.

But there were few words of appreciation from President Trump, who expressed anger at Britain’s delay in allowing US troops and aircraft to use UK bases. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said lessons had been learned from the “mistakes of Iraq”, stipulating that the United States could use sites in England – and on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia – only for defensive actions targeting missile sites, not the regime.

The result: a major rift in what was once known as the “special relationship”.

 

Produced by Gavin Lee, Théo Vareille, Daniel Whittington and Melissa Kalaydjian.