Were we close to a nuclear catastrophe?

When a superpower is driven by a blind expansionist power

- BY MAHFUZ ANAM

Trump, Netanyahu, and Khamenei.

US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expected Iran to crumble when they launched the surprise attack on February 28 while negotiations were going on, killing the latter's supreme leader and several others.

The Israeli PM reportedly told the US president that, with the decapitation of its leadership, Iran would collapse and a US-friendly and Israel-compliant regime would take over.

But Iran surprised its attackers and gained the respect of the world through its resilience. Yes, it attacked several Gulf neighbours, but this was limited to US military installations hosted by them, and some energy infrastructure after the states in question continued to allow US-Israeli attacks from their territories. The people of Iran deserve our commendation for proving that, however militarily powerful a country or camp may be, without moral and ethical justification for its actions, the victim country can resist, survive, and even retaliate. This adds an interesting story for any society.

What was stopped through the recently agreed two-week ceasefire was not so much a war as it was madness. Madness that seemingly brought the world to the brink of a nuclear catastrophe that could lead to World War III. The people of countries that have nothing to do with the conflict had to suffer immensely. We, in Bangladesh, have had our economic activities severely disrupted, with a World Bank report released on Wednesday predicting a slowdown in our GDP growth, 12 lakh people remaining below the poverty line who were supposed to have risen above it, 600,000 jobs being lost, and public debt exceeding 45 percent of GDP by FY2028—all because of this madness.