Last week, still under the Israeli strikes on Iran, we reworked the number you have in your hands to build a new file, and look for another one, on what Donald Trump was not yet baptized “The twelve -day war”. Friday, June 20, we asked ourselves the question we ask ourselves every week: what are we going to put in the front page? With what title? And what drawing?
Remember: Israel had hardly struck Iran, and Donald Trump, after having left doubt, delayed: he gave himself a maximum of two weeks to decide to intervene … or not. It was the moment when we chose our drawing one. With support, several articles published by the international press, we thought it was time to return to Iran: how did Iranians react? What state was the country in? Could the Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei hold? Was the regime weakened to the point of falling? All these questions, we intended to answer them with the help of The East day, of Washington Post, of l’Economist… As for the drawing, we had then no doubt, it was that of the Norwegian Morten Morland who won by his visual power and by his meaning.
And then time has accelerated. To the statements of the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian on Saturday June 21, who threatened Israel with a response “More devastating” And excluded any judgment from the Tehran nuclear program, succeeded the Midnight Hammer operation on Sunday in the early hours of the morning (“midnight hammer”), massive strikes against three of Iranian uranium enrichment sites, Ispahan, Natanz and Fordo. We have reworked our file, redesigned our front page. We questioned ourselves, with the Anglo-Saxon press, about the possibility that Trump then engaged in the United States in a new Iraq war, on the fact that he decided alone, without the approval of the congress, in defiance of international law. On the fact, as the article of the New York Times that we take up in this case that he had just made the most risky bet of his presidency. And we were looking for new ones.
And then Tuesday morning – day of our looping -, new dramatic stroke! The American president declares peace unilaterally. A very relative, and very fragile peace, in which Iran appears as the great loser. And we are back to our starting point: what about this country that comes out of these twelve days of war?
For Anthony Samrani, editor -in -chief of the Lebanese daily newspaper The East day, Ali Khamenei may have gone through the most difficult week of his life, his heritage may be in ruins, he will do everything to save what is left. “Nothing is more important for him than the survival of the regime, he adds. The regime can come out considerably weakened from this war, but with a security apparatus which remains strong enough to watch any form of dispute, at least in the short and medium term. He can change his face […]. But none of these scenarios corresponds to the democratization and pacification project that the hawks of Washington and Tel Aviv sell. […] It takes a considerable dose of optimism or cynicism to claim that it will lead to peace in the region and to the liberation of the Iranian people. ”
Iranian journalist and historian Arash Azizi, whose written platform we publish for Washington Post Before the American strikes, does not say anything else … He refuses to applaud the bombings against his country, even if he dreams of a change of diet. “What would be the best scenario for Iran? he wonders. Without a doubt a scenario that would minimize the number of victims and preserve its territory. For this, the most pragmatic groups of the current regime should take up the reins of the country. Which would go either through a coup d’etat or through the death of the Supreme Guide. Even if this scenario does not bring the immediate and miraculous change that many Iranians dream of, of which myself, is an acceptable scenario for Iranians and, above all, a scenario that would not carry the stigma of a foreign intervention. ” It was counting without Donald Trump.
