Muscat, Oman: 165 young girls dead while studying in school in southern Iran. The Strait of Hormuz closed. Iran’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei assassinated.
Iran’s Chief of Army Staff, Defence Minister, Head of Iran’s paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) and top defence officials, all killed in the midst of a National Security Council meeting in central Tehran.
In Israel, missiles and air raid sirens continue to blare across the country, forcing its citizens and people into a new phase of endless anxiety. The modern day Sparta, has once again sent its children to kill and be killed in a daring 200 aircraft strike sortie on Iran.
Jerusalem, the holy city with it’s ancient relationship to fire and blood, rings with sounds of air raid sirens mixed in with voices of people and the rituals of different shrines. Excited chatter about the death of Khamenei clashing with bursting frustration against an Israeli government that time and again unleashes war, over peace.
The Gulf, home to the Crown Jewels of the Middle East, from Dubai, Riyadh, Kuwait city, Abu Dhabi – is in panic. Major cities, economic centres and tourism hotspots continue to be hit by drones and missiles, taking the shine of the glittering skyscrapers that made these paradises the envy of the world.
And in the midst of this carnage, an American President, gloats on social media.
The Israel-US Operation, named ‘Roaring Lion’ by Israel and ‘Operation Epic Fury’ by the U.S., is a high-risk, high-reward gambit. It has lit a spark that has engulfed the entire region, with no clear endgame in sight.
Iran in turn, has declared operation ‘Khatm al-Tufan’ (end of the storm), raining fire across the Middle East, consuming military, civilian and infrastructural targets with raw vehemence. It seems the regime in Iran has decided, if it is going to go down, it will take everyone in the region with it.
Across global political-diplomatic circles, this is being seen as President Trump’s biggest foreign policy gamble during his second term.
The attacks on Iran come after the earlier 12 day war in 2025 wrecked destruction across the country and on Israel, unleashed ironically by a man who campaigned for reelection as a “President of Peace” – a term President Trump loves.
The legality of the ongoing ‘major combat operations’ in Iran remain under scrutiny as no U.S. Congressional approval or UN Mandate was taken before the attacks. A new war in the Middle East has begun under a different American President. It feels like déjà vu all over again.
And the United Nations for its part, particularly the Security Council, lies wholly exposed and incompetent, unable to maintain peace and security of the 21st century world with it’s 20th century architecture.
The closing of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran, the critical chokepoint for international maritime shipping, is generating ripples of global economic shock with crude oil prices projected to cross $100 per barrel in the coming days.
Revenge in Middle Eastern cultures, both Sunni and Shia, is deeply embedded. What happens now, between Iran and Israel, between Iran and the Gulf States, who have become collateral in this new phase of ‘open war’, and between Israel and the Gulf nations, remains to be seen.
Simply put, no one knows.
Meanwhile, 12 high end Montblanc pens ordered by Oman’s Foreign Ministry for an approaching peace deal between U.S. and Iran, which was to be signed at the Palais des Nations in Geneva in the coming days, remain neatly packed: never to be used in service of a peace agreement that lies shattered.
The madness of it all truly feels like a point of no return.
Note: At the time of publishing the editorial, the number of school girls killed was 85. Since then the number of dead has been updated to 165 following official death toll count on 2 March 2026.
