Delusions of Existential Grandeur

"It is better that we bring the war to an end now as we are in a position of power and dignity."

"The whole world acknowledges our victory and emphasize that America has attacked our schools, hospitals and infrastructure in violation of all regulations and is hated around the world."

"They cannot find even a single clause in this agreement that indicates capitulation. All the commitments concern the other side."

"Today, we believe that all our commanders and armed forces are fully prepared to defend the country with all their might and with their lives in their hands. They also believe that the government is wholeheartedly seeking to serve the people." 

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian

Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian waves during a campaign event in Tehran, Iran. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

 

"Sanctions and pressure will not help resolve the issue."

"China calls on all relevant parties to take responsible measures and resolve the problem through political and diplomatic means."

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian  

China's spokesman sounds as though wisdom and world peace is always uppermost in the minds of Beijing's Communist Party elites. This is the country, of course, that shot down pro-democracy students in Tiananmen Square, who wanted the end to one-party dictatorship of China. Any Chinese citizen who dares to publicly commemorate the event and mourn the death of thousands of protesters, under Chinese law is held guilty of "incitement to subversion" and faces a long prison sentence. In China, furthermore, Muslims such as the Uyghurs in Xinjiang face cultural obliteration, but as long as Islam is kept out of China, Beijing is front and centre in support of an Islamist regime even more brutal than its own. 

 

The U.S. war in Iran against the Islamic Republic that began in February with U.S. and Israeli coordinated aerial bombardments of the country, is at a standstill. The issue of the IRGC closing the Strait of Hormuz to normal marine traffic moving oil, LNG, fertilizers and other products valued by the global community threw a spanner into President Trump's plans to remove the Iranian regime to ensure that no further efforts would be made in pursuit of nuclear and long-range missile development to threaten the world community, as well as rescue Iranians from the persecution of the Ayatollahs and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps they have suffered under since 1979.

 

Oil residue lines the shore near fishing boats on Qeshm Island, Iran, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, amid ongoing wartime attacks on vessels and infrastructure in and around the Strait of Hormuz, though the spill’s source has not been independently determined.(Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)

 

The unpopularity of the war in the United States resulted in political vulnerability for the American president, with the understanding that if he ordered a ground invasion to complement and support the air and sea bombardments, he would face certain political repercussions in the future, and the Republican Party would be in a poor position with upcoming Congressional elections through voter resentment of having their country dragged into another 'forever' war in the Middle East. Issuing threats rather than taking firm action has resulted in a half-completed war, leaving the Iranian regime exultant that its ploy to provoke its neighbours through strikes that would leave them less enamoured of hosting U.S. military sites created a rift that in the end profited Iran's regime.

 

The hyperbole emanating from the Iranian government which has seen its geography relentlessly bombed, its political and theocratic leaders targeted and eliminated along with its military and scientific elite, its weapons stocks destroyed, its airfields and naval assets destroyed, creates an aura for interior consumption of a valiant nation courageously confronting an alien power set on its destruction. While countering the American offensive, the regime was also engaged in destroying its citizens' hopes of rescue from its theistic Islamist rule, through arrests, torture and the death penalty for those who had been detained among the hundreds of thousands who attended mass protests throughout the country in December. 

 

Now the Iranian president acts out a role of peacemaker, that his country is prepared to accept certain conditions demanded by U.S. negotiators in Tehran's projected belief that its position is in a better place  than that of its nemesis, Washington. The on-hold talks aside, Tehran is still blocking access to passage through the Strait of Hormuz, as its victory centrepiece. As though it is of no concern that Washington has instituted a naval counter-blockade of Iran.

 

President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with technology leaders in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

 

The prospect of signing an agreement which Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei purportedly approved, despite 'differing views', toward the goal of ending the war, will allow the Iranian regime to proclaim victory. Even as Iran's parliamentary hard-line lawmakers criticize the government, accusing it of concessions to placate the US. including reopening of the strategic Strait, even as the U.S. Navy organizes and protects convoys of tankers through the Strait's southern sector, such an event would allow the regime to retain its power and exult over its having 'won the war'. 

 

Iran's Foreign Ministry accused the US. of "economic terrorism" and "crimes against humanity", in a sanctimonious reversal of the regime's modus operandi. "The perpetrators and instigators of these sanctions are deserving of trial and punishment for committing such heinous crimes", they stated, following U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's declaration that Washington would "collapse" the Iranian regime with an economics sanctions campaign.

 

U.S. politics, with the Republicans taking the  temperature of the U.S. public over the prolonged Middle East conflict has led the Trump administration to abandon its half-successful aerial bombardments and threatening naval presence in favour of an economic embargo. The plan, which Bessent elaborated on to a degree is to intensify economic sanctions, favouring that route over a continuation of heavy military operations.

 

Iranian Foreign Minister had his own interpretation of these events: "The so-called 'Economic D-Day' is a diversion from America's own crisis: unprecedented debt and surging interests costs", spat Abbas Araghchi in an X post. 

An Iranian missile is displayed during a rally marking the annual Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day, on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan in Tehran, Iran. (credit: MAJID ASGARIPOUR/WANA (WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY) VIA REUTERS)