Letter From the Editors

It has been a mere two months since President Trump announced the creation of the Board of Peace with great fanfare. While ostensibly established to oversee the peace process in Gaza, the Board is also intended to provide a blueprint for solving other conflicts across the globe, including the one in Ukraine. But Trump has apparently quickly tired of the pursuit of peace and has now joined Israel in a war against Iran dubbed Operation Epic Fury. So far, the two countries have pounded Iran with missile strikes, killing several top officials, including the supreme leader, and destroying military compounds and installations. For its part, Iran has mounted a vigorous response, raining its own missiles and drones down on US installations and facilities throughout the Gulf region.

Although Trump’s stated goals for the operation shift daily, one he mentions consistently is regime change. But Aleksandr Maryasov, former Russian ambassador to Iran, says in an interview with Kommersant that “Iran doesn’t have a real, well-organized or highly motivated opposition” capable of achieving this. And besides, he says, for Iranians “any threat to their independence is immediately met with rejection and condemnation.” Indeed, Fyodor Lukyanov writes that “Iran is too important and long-established a pillar of the entire Middle East for any schemes involving it to go smoothly.” And since, as expert Boris Dzhereliyevsky tells Izvestia, the Trump administration has “no vision for ending this conflict,” the war could end in what Aleksandr Vedrussov calls an “epic fail.”

But what does the international community, which will inevitably be thrown into chaos if the war continues for much longer, think about the attacks? According to Gennady Petrov, views in Europe are “complex” and “mixed.” The war has drawn strong condemnation from some leaders, like Finland’s Alexander Stubb, and praise from others, like Latvia’s Foreign Minister Baiba Braze, who posted: “The world will shed no tears for the demise of the murderous Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.”

In Central Asia, the Uzbek and Tajik leaders both sent condolence notes on Khamenei’s passing to Iranian President Pezeshkian, while Kazakhstan expressed support for Arab countries. But, as Viktoria Panfilova reports in NG, the war is raising logistical, security and humanitarian nightmares for governments in Central Asia as they grapple with how to maintain stability in their individual countries and the region as a whole as the war continues.

Further to the east, China has offered a restrained response, limiting itself to diplomatic calls to end hostilities and ensure the safety of energy supplies. However, The Diplomat, as quoted by Vladimir Kulagin in Vedomosti, says that the war is a “catastrophic geoeconomic earthquake” for China, which faces potential damage to its energy reserves, its investments in Iran and its reputation as leader of the Global South. On the other hand, since a summit with Trump is scheduled in the coming weeks, Chinese President Xi Jinping will have to tread lightly around these topics.

Meanwhile, Ukraine marked the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion several days before the war with Iran began. To observe this solemn occasion, Meduza published comments on the war from readers in both Ukraine and Russia. Regardless of the authors’ country of origin, these comments are shot through with feelings of physical and emotional isolation, loss, confusion over identity, and despair. The stories speak for themselves. Tanya, Dnipro: “[T]he hardest thing of all is seeing human grief up close. War looks different in photographs than it does in front of you. When houses are burning before your eyes and people are crying – well, what can I say – I’ve lost my faith in humanity.” Aleksandra, Moscow: “I sit on the bench, breathing in the scent of lilac, and imagine a missile landing in my courtyard and blowing everything to pieces – ***this whole damned, unjust world. I haven’t been able to breathe this air properly for a long time. The scent of lilac lingers faintly – but to me it smells like corpses.”