A plume of smoke rises after an Iranian strike on fuel tanks in Muharraq, Bahrain, on March 12, 2026. (Credit: Fadhel Madhan/AFP)
Officially, U.S. President Donald Trump’s optimism remains unshaken. Tehran is near defeat, he said once again on Wednesday, two days after hinting that the war — which, in his view, was progressing far faster than expected — would end “soon.”“They [Iran] have no navy, no communications, they’ve got no Air Force,” he said that day, nearly two weeks after the joint offensive with Israel, who showcased in their offensive their overwhelming air and intelligence superiority, assassinating several senior military and political figures of the regime, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, during the first hours of the war.Was “the head of the serpent” merely a “paper tiger”? Nearly two weeks later, the events suggest a shift: Tehran has managed to regionalize the conflict and expose to the Gulf states the vulnerabilities of the U.S....
Officially, U.S. President Donald Trump’s optimism remains unshaken. Tehran is near defeat, he said once again on Wednesday, two days after hinting that the war — which, in his view, was progressing far faster than expected — would end “soon.”“They [Iran] have no navy, no communications, they’ve got no Air Force,” he said that day, nearly two weeks after the joint offensive with Israel, who showcased in their offensive their overwhelming air and intelligence superiority, assassinating several senior military and political figures of the regime, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, during the first hours of the war.Was “the head of the serpent” merely a “paper tiger”? Nearly two weeks later, the events suggest a shift: Tehran has managed to regionalize the conflict and expose to the Gulf states the...
