How the US Became the Middle East’s Decisive Power

On 28 February 2026, the long, shadowed rivalry between Washington and Tehran exploded into open conflict. Within hours of coordinated American-Israeli air strikes over Iran, reports confirmed that Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had been killed in a "decapitation" strike on his compound in Tehran. For decades, the United States had insisted it sought containment, not conquest. It was...