Speculation about targets range from nuclear sites, to strikes against the powerful Revolutionary Guards, industrial infrastructure, or against Iranian leaders themselves. The UN remains the organisation which, however inadequate, represents the only legal framework for global collective security, but for which Trump has complete contempt. And there are serious questions about what domestic legal authority the US would use to strike at Iran in the absence of congressional authorisation. Iran has responded to US pressure by cancelling some 800 executions of convicted protesters but the scope of US “democracy” demands remains very unclear. Any follow-up in Iran, however, is likely to be more complicated and unpredictable, not least the search for a replacement government.

Source: The Irish Times February 01, 2026 20:46 UTC