For years, I worked as a correspondent in the region. I know from personal experience that this kind of weaponry, being used on this scale, translates into blood, killing and massive destruction of not only military targets but millions of lives.
I look at the warring parties – Washington and Tehran – and, having worked both at the White House and in the Middle East, from Israel to [**Iran**](https://inews.co.uk/topic/iran?ico=in-line_link), I can acknowledge that in [**this conflict**](http://xn--8ug/), neither side deserves to win.
In my work, I covered the murderous, bloodthirsty nature of the so-called theocratic regime in Iran, the brutal use of conscripts as cannon-fodder in the merciless war with Iraq in the 1980s and then the massacre at the start of this century of tens of thousands of protesters who dared to challenge the Ayatollah’s rule**.**
Recently, we have had a [glimpse of the deep corruption of the ruling elite](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-01-28/how-iran-supreme-leader-khamenei-s-son-built-a-global-property-empire) in Tehran, with the exposure of their sprawling assets across the West. No surprise here: for years, one of the Iranian contacts from my years in the region as a correspondent had insisted former supreme leader Ali Khamenei’s portfolio was worth tens of billions of dollars, from properties in Dubai and Paris to massive holdings in the oil and gas industries.
5 Kommentare
Watching [**this war**](https://inews.co.uk/news/world/trump-hopelessly-confused-own-war-4284929?ico=in-line_link) in the Middle East, there’s a curious dilemma at work.
For years, I worked as a correspondent in the region. I know from personal experience that this kind of weaponry, being used on this scale, translates into blood, killing and massive destruction of not only military targets but millions of lives.
I look at the warring parties – Washington and Tehran – and, having worked both at the White House and in the Middle East, from Israel to [**Iran**](https://inews.co.uk/topic/iran?ico=in-line_link), I can acknowledge that in [**this conflict**](http://xn--8ug/), neither side deserves to win.
In my work, I covered the murderous, bloodthirsty nature of the so-called theocratic regime in Iran, the brutal use of conscripts as cannon-fodder in the merciless war with Iraq in the 1980s and then the massacre at the start of this century of tens of thousands of protesters who dared to challenge the Ayatollah’s rule**.**
When I lived in Lebanon and then Israel, I watched the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Tehran use Beirut, Gaza, Hebron and Nablus as a playground for their shadow war against the Jewish state and America, arming and financing the likes of [**Hezbollah**](https://inews.co.uk/topic/hezbollah?srsltid=AfmBOor8gXC0_ai70NIa48qFOuaKB2V_g1jAhMJ8Ccu-JKcJbOpDrdD_&ico=in-line_link) and [**Hamas**](https://inews.co.uk/topic/hamas?srsltid=AfmBOorjbCcKnUHECznW5LVcTXF5xfuFCFGbquTRrM7sq9XvjON3vC1n&ico=in-line_link). The many lives lost were simply not a concern for the military force that rules Iran alongside the so-called religious leaders.
Recently, we have had a [glimpse of the deep corruption of the ruling elite](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-01-28/how-iran-supreme-leader-khamenei-s-son-built-a-global-property-empire) in Tehran, with the exposure of their sprawling assets across the West. No surprise here: for years, one of the Iranian contacts from my years in the region as a correspondent had insisted former supreme leader Ali Khamenei’s portfolio was worth tens of billions of dollars, from properties in Dubai and Paris to massive holdings in the oil and gas industries.
His son, [Mojtaba, the new boss](https://inews.co.uk/news/oil-tankers-queue-in-pakistan-4282413?ico=in-line_link), has, by all accounts, luxury mansions on London’s “Billionaires Row”, off the Bishops Avenue in Hampstead. So much for Death to America, eh? Such financial exploitation of power is straight out of the [Donald Trump](https://inews.co.uk/topic/donald-trump?ico=in-line_link) playbook. The Trump family has already [made billions in his first year back in power](https://inews.co.uk/news/world/seven-times-trump-president-enrich-himself-4197182?srsltid=AfmBOopaeUukxKtgiBD_Paxw8SorpHP6NI1D1_e7B_f3CIZFtAkPETKw&ico=in-line_link), as have those who financed his campaigns. Oil and gas titans are already said to be benefiting from his intervention in Venezuela, while waiting to do likewise in Iran, we are told.
And there, perhaps, is the rub. Because when you look at the other side in this war, you have to gasp at the shameless quality of what the White House is doing. You need to ask yourself the price that victory for Trump will bring, and how he might use it to keep changing the rules of our [beleaguered world order](https://inews.co.uk/opinion/trump-bullies-world-mob-boss-new-order-rising-4190351?srsltid=AfmBOooN58fmRiXiu7hi-aNufL0kMbeKXi8_hpY6tjwtqVFD6pMIyH9O&ico=in-line_link).
It is great Puzzlement…and interestingly True.
Israel?
Normal people are always the ones that lose every war. To the abuser class it’s just points on a board.
The whole world is wrong war. Make peace dummies.