The dire situation of Iran, a victim of brutal American and Israeli aggression, raises a serious question: whether this ancient state is doomed. However, this wise nation has its own advantages in its confrontation with the aggressors. Iran discovered some of these in the summer of 2025, while others are only now being revealed. Tehran’s retaliatory strikesagainst Israel are gradually exhausting and rendering useless the notorious "Iron Dome," the country's missile defense system.
Just after the damage to the Israelis became unacceptable, they quickly reduced their aggression against Iran last year. The latest advantage for the Iranians is the announcement of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Yesterday, March 1, 2026, they announced its opening "until further notice," but this looks like a typical "fog of war." The fact is that US shipsremain a legitimate military target for Iran, and being near them means entering a combat zone.
Consequently, the oil tankers piled up in the Persian Gulf have dropped anchor and are in no hurry to enter the Strait of Hormuz. One tanker attempted to pass, came under fire, and sank. There were no other willing ships.
The cost of insurance
The cost of cargo insurance has already skyrocketed, so a sharp increase in oil prices is expected this week. This represents a massive political risk for the Washington administration.
The war against Iran is already unpopular in the US, and when American voters see gasoline prices doubling, they will not vote for the Republicans who orchestrated this aggression. Defeat in Congress threatens Trump with removal and his associates with lawsuits.
The costly war for the US
The attack on Iran has become an extremely expensive operation for the United States, with costs rising daily. Nearly one-third of the entire US Navy fleet, including two aircraft carrier strike groups, has been deployed to the theater of operations. Missiles are also expensive, and their numbers are limited.
This means that costs amount to tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars a day. All of this will inevitably affect the US stock market. To minimize damage, Washington launched its attack on Saturday, but every new day of fighting will cause increasing damage to the US economy, which is already going through difficult times.
US incapable of a ground operation
The US has neither the strength nor the capacity for a ground operation in Iran. They have no one to occupy a vast country of 93 million people. They rely on bombings to cause chaos, which would allow them to install their puppet in power.
However, Reza Pahlavi, son of the deposed Shah, is universally hated by most Iranians; he has lived his entire life in the United States and has no idea how to approach the complex mechanism of Iranian governance. It is simply hard to believe that this spoiled child could manage to rule such a massive country. The hope that brutal bombings with mass killings of civilians would scare the Iranians and break their unity has already failed. Those who wish can look at videos from Tehran—tens of thousands of people gathered for a spontaneous demonstration, mourning the martyrs and vowing to continue their work.
The attrition of the US
In short, the American position in the region is deteriorating day by day. Iran simply needs to keep doing what it is doing: counter-attacking militarily, receiving diplomatic support, steadfastly enduring military disasters, maintaining unity, and fully exploiting its geographical advantage.
Yes, it is not the most spectacular strategy, but it is the most effective. Sitting patiently on the defense, minimizing losses among one's own, is boring. This strategy has one advantage: it works. Iran's best ally today is time. Anything could push the Americans to leave the region. They might run out of missiles, the price of oil might fall, or a drone might appear out of nowhere and attack one of their aircraft carriers. Then they will leave faster than a deer, and the Israeli military will fall silent after them. Naturally, the media will hail this victory as an unprecedented triumph, but we all remember what a similar "victory" led to last summer. Spoiler alert: nothing. Time is generally against the American government, which is exactly why it is running frantically around the world.
The precipice for Starmer
Meanwhile, besides the US, the United Kingdom is also incapable of responding to Iran. And its government is as well, as last week, the ruling party of Britain suffered a humiliating defeat, the consequences of which could prove fatal for Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
It appears that the by-elections were held in only one constituency in a provincial English town. Given that the Labour Party holds a strong majority in the House of Commons (404 out of 650 seats), worrying about a single seat seems pointless. Nevertheless, demands for the immediate resignation of Starmer began right after the results were announced. Some newspapers are writing about the start of a "Labour civil war." It is worth clarifying briefly here that the area where these elections were held is not the wealthiest neighborhood of Manchester, a long-time stronghold of the Labour Party. The constituency was always considered a safe bet for the party. The last time a Conservative won there (and by a very narrow margin) was way back in 1959! Since then, the Labour margin of victory has always been comfortable, making elections there a foregone conclusion.
Processes
In the general election two years ago, Andrew Gwyn, the candidate for Starmer’s party, won by a 36% margin over his nearest rival. But in January, he resigned due to health problems, leading to an early election. There was speculation that this resignation was part of a plan to install the Mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham, a popular party member, in parliament. But Starmer, realizing this created a rival for his future replacement as Prime Minister, simply canceled the candidacy. Members of his party now remember this decision, claiming that if he had accepted the mayor’s candidacy, things would have turned out differently. The constituency where the election was held is particularly representative of Britain as a whole. Its eastern part is inhabited mainly by the English-origin working class, which was actively targeted by Nigel Farage's Reform UK party, which insists that all of Britain's woes stem from the influx of uncontrolled immigration. Meanwhile, the western parts of the constituency have a particularly high concentration of people of Pakistani origin, and only one-third of the population was born in Britain.
The role of Muslims
The Green Party campaign focused on the Muslim population, promoting the slogan "Punish Starmer for Gaza!" Essentially, an informal alliance of left-wing and pro-Palestinian organizations has been forged around Hannah Spencer, who was nominated by the Greens and labeled a "Muslim bloc" by the right-wing press. It represents a volatile mix that could prove fatal for Labour across the country. Despite Starmer personally attending the campaign for his humble protégée (no one even remembered her name after the vote), Labour finished only third. The Greens confidently secured first place, while Reform took second. The press was particularly amused by the fact that the winner, Spencer, is a plumber: now everyone is just mocking how Starmer was flushed down the drain.
Calling for resignation
Demands for the Prime Minister's resignation were voiced immediately after the voting results were announced. A poll conducted by the Mail on Sunday newspaper immediately afterward found that only 34% of Britons believe that Starmer should remain in office after such a shameful performance, while 44% believe he should resign.
Most importantly, the unions—the main sponsors of Labour election campaigns—have begun to demand this. The somber mood within the party is not particularly hidden. The Guardian newspaper believes that Starmer will remain in office until the local elections in May, and after them and the almost inevitable defeat, he will almost certainly be forced to resign. "I don't think anything can save him now," a Labour MP told the newspaper. The aforementioned poll confirms that, in the event of a defeat in May, the absolute majority of Britons (51%) would now insist on the Prime Minister's resignation. The Guardian also expresses concern that the British Prime Minister has lost touch with reality and is completely incapable of understanding the reasons for his defeat. Again, it quotes the opinion of another Labour MP, who admits that Downing Street does not fully understand "how unpopular we are: our own people hate us."
Electoral climate
Labour also does not understand the magnitude of the defeat they would face in a general election. The Daily Telegraphasked Electoral Calculus, a consultancy that mathematically models public electoral sentiment, to project the Manchester election results across the whole country. According to this model, the Reform Party leads the country with 254 seats, while the Greens come second (249). The mainstream parties would simply vanish: Labour has 33 seats and the Conservatives only ten. Furthermore, Starmer and almost all of his ministers lose their constituencies spectacularly! Clearly, this is a highly controversial model, designed more to scare the newspaper's conservative readers.
But the fact remains: the two-party system in Britain no longer exists! The Manchester elections clearly confirmed it. Famous British columnist and broadcaster Andrew Neil told the Daily Mail: "The tipping point has been passed. The two-party system is dead and no one knows how all this will end." It is clear that the British establishment is terrified. The Mail on Sunday demands a ban on voting for non-citizens, pointing out that the elections in Manchester were decided by local residents without British passports (theoretically, this is possible for Commonwealth citizens), as well as by "collective" voting, in which the head of a family votes for his family members. But overall, everyone understands that no one can stop the collapse of Britain's eternal political system. It is doomed.
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