Trump claims Iran as puppet, eyes Cuba, as war expands to Caucasus, Europe

(Originally published March 6 in “What in the World“) Iran launched a fresh wave of strikes against Israel and U.S. bases in the Middle East.

Tehran denied, however, Azerbaijan’s assertion that it had launched attack drones into the Nakhchevan enclave, an Azerbaijani territory bordered by Iran on one side and Armenia on the other. As it loses more of its missiles to U.S. and Israeli airstrikes, launches of which have dropped 90% since the war’s start, Iran may increasingly resort to cheaper drones. But these one-way, suicide attack drones have proved so impressive, in Ukraine and now in Iran, that the Pentagon is about to order 30,000 for its own troops to use.

Israel meanwhile, expanded its second front in Lebanon by striking Hezbollah positions in Beirut’s suburbs and is massing armored vehicles along the border to help troops already in southern Lebanon advance farther inward.

Italy and Spain on Thursday joined France, Greece, and the U.K. in dispatching warships to help defend fellow EU member Cyprus. Italy may also send some air-defense weapons to allies in the Gulf. The U.K. is adding anti-drone helicopters to its defense of Cyprus, while also sending four fighter jets to Qatar.

But all six of the U.K.’s Type 45 destroyers are anchored in British ports, and the one it’s sending to Cyprus, the HMS Dragon, won’t be able to leave for Cyprus until next week and won’t arrive until a week after that. Cyprus has unsurprisingly expressed exasperation with Britain’s sluggish response and is piqued that it has had to call in support from France. Europe’s own efforts to develop a fighter jet capable of replacing its U.S. F-35s are in tatters amid a disagreement between France’s Dassault and the German arm of Airbus, which have been trying to jointly develop a “sixth-generation,” Future Combat Air System jet fighter, or FCAS.

So, how long will Trump’s war go on? Who knows? Trump, the president who would be king, wants now to be kingmaker in Iran, too. Trump told reporters he should have a say in who Iran picks as its next supreme leader, and said the current front-runner, the son of slain leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, was unacceptable. That has only added to the confusion about what goals Trump wants to achieve to end the war. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have both denied that the aim is regime change, despite Trump’s suggestions to the contrary. And while the war was initially justified as necessary to prevent Iran from successfully developing a nuclear weapon, airstrikes have shifted almost entirely to Iran’s ballistic missiles, with none so far targeting Iran’s major nuclear facilities.

But Trump is already adding Iran to Venezuela alongside the notches on his belt of imperial conquests and, in an interview with Politico, suggested Cuba may be his next target.