This image from a video provided by the US Central Command shows a missile being launched from from a US Navy ship in support of Operation Epic Fury on February. 28, 2026. Photo: AP/PTI
Repeated missile strikes by the US and Israel on Iran expose the impotence of international institutions like the UN and its Security Council
It is time to shut the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The world can then sit back and watch US President Donald Trump and Israel pound Iran with the clear knowledge that none can stop them from bloodletting. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khameini has been assassinated, while the world watches stupefied.
The latest round of unprovoked missile strikes by the US and Israel on Iran is mind-boggling in its audacity and mindlessness. In June last year, the two claimed to have destroyed Iran’s nuclear capability, to a considerable extent. But that does not seem to have satisfied Trump or the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Contrary to their expectation, Iran retaliated with an array of strikes using its potent, indigenously made arsenal of ballistic missiles. Realising that this was what gave the Islamic regime in Tehran its heft, Trump demanded that Iran abandon its ballistic missile program and openly called for overthrowing the Ayotollah Khameini-led Islamic set up.
The irony
For over two decades, the US and Israel had been demanding that Iran dismantle its nuclear programme. They had, by chance, overlooked its ballistic missile capability. After last June, this was included in their charter of demands. Now, why would Iran want to give up its ballistic missiles? Without that the country would be a sitting duck. The recent talks between Trump and Iran, therefore, did not make much headway, as Tehran’s negotiators were not ready to give up beyond a point.
The world needs to be alarmed. For, the repeated missile strikes by the US and Israel on Iran expose the impotence of international institutions like the UN and its Security Council. The credibility of the UN is at its lowest ebb, having been unable to prevent Israel’s recent two-year genocidal assault on Gaza and the shenanigans of Trump in the Middle-East, leading to the latest attack on Iran.
As for the IAEA, its inspectors have repeatedly stated that Iran is not yet ready to make a nuclear bomb, if at all. It last inspected Iran’s facilities in June 2025. Tehran’s uranium enrichment is to the extent of around 60 per cent. For it to reach bomb-potential, it needs to be enriched to over 90 per cent. But these facts have not altered the mindset of the US or Israel. And Iran has repeatedly stated its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes.
In fact, the irony is the US has no reason to attack Iran. Tehran has never threatened American interests. Israel, on the other hand, has reasons to see Iran neutralised and the Islamic regime dislodged, as Tehran has not recognised the legitimacy of the Israeli state.
Bending over for Israel
But Trump has a history of going out of his way to oblige Israel. In the first term, he shifted the US consulate from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and recognised it as the capital of Israel – completely going against international law. He then came up with his concept of a future Palestinian state, a futuristic map that literally was full of holes (where Jewish settlements had been set up) and was the subject of Palestinian outrage and global ridicule.
The world needs to be alarmed. For, the repeated missile strikes by the US and Israel on Iran expose the impotence of international institutions like the UN and its Security Council.
Trump, in 2018, abruptly cancelled the nuclear deal that the Barack Obama administration had signed with Israel along with the European Union, Russia and the UN. While the rest of the world approved of the deal, Netanyahu had virulently opposed the agreement. So, Trump obliged him by abrogating it.
Donald Trump, as the world has seen by now, clearly scorns rules-based international order. He imposed reciprocal tariffs after neutering the World Trade Organisation. He has sharply cut the US’s funding, engagement and involvement with the various United Nations bodies. In short, Trump has literally dictated the course of world politics since he took office last January.
Iran attempted to be as conciliatory as possible but did not give in to the core demands. At least three rounds of negotiations were on. But, like in June 2025, Trump in the midst of negotiations decided to attack Iran in tandem with Israel.
Lonely Tehran regime
As for the Islamic regime in Tehran, it has probably never felt as lonely as now. Even its supposedly closest allies Russia and China seem clay-footed, unable to come to its support, besides issuing comforting statements. Russia is caught in a quagmire of its own making – fighting Ukraine, with no bandwidth to provide help to Tehran.
China is interestingly docile. Touted as the only nation that has the ability to stand up to the US, its reaction is strangely muted. Unlike Western powers that have shown they will stand up and fight for their friends (they forced Trump to backdown on his plan to acquire Greenland), China is bogged down by its market-centric philosophy.
India, for long, considered among Iran’s few friends has been a let down for Tehran.
Beijing besides buying Iran’s oil, has undoubtedly, been a backbone of support in Iran’s military and nuclear development but its involvement ends there. It has never been able to stand with Iran and challenge the US militarily. Like much of the world, it is in bed with the US on a range of economic and trade issues and, so far, unable to do anything for Iran when it is under attack.
India, for long, considered among Iran’s few friends has been a let down for Tehran. The Modi government, unable to withstand US pressure, particularly the current Trump dispensation, has for practical purposes abandoned Tehran – suspending the development of the Chabahar port and reducing purchase of oil from it, among other things.
Tehran’s Islamic regime too appears to have displayed rigidity in its understanding of the contemporary Trump-driven world. One view is that Iran’s negotiators could have played for time knowing Trump’s mindset. But its supreme leader Khameini's ego may have come in the way of such a possibility.
The regime has also shown poor interpersonal skills in the Middle-Eastern neighbourhood, where Sunni-majority powers like Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt have kept it at arms’ length for many years. Sometime back, China brokered a thaw between the Saudis and Iran but that has not translated into anything substantial on the ground so far. In fact, the Saudis were almost on the verge of joining the Trump-backed Abraham Accords and establishing ties with Israel.
The Gaza assault halted that possibility, at least for the time being.
Time for a rethink
In a nutshell, what one is witnessing is the world abandoning Iran at a time when it is being attacked without provocation. For those who still have faith in the international order, it is time for a rethink.
Israel’s unbridled assault on Palestinians in Gaza, followed by the missile strikes on Iran have shown that when the two – Netanyahu and Trump – get together to target any country, the rest of the world may as well go on a picnic. Until it is their turn.
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