International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

Iran Between the Russian and Chinese Models

Gilbert Achcar — 2026-05-04T09:32:37Z

Donald Trump claimed to pursue “regime change” in Iran, but in a manner distinct from the George W. Bush administration's use of the term to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which was framed as bringing democracy after Saddam Hussein's overthrow. As we have repeatedly argued in these pages, even before the joint U.S.-Israeli aggression against Iran (see, for example, “Washington Will Not Bring Democracy to Iran” [Arabic], 10 February 2026), Trump's objective was – and remains – to replicate his Venezuelan strategy: abducting the president to pave the way for a successor willing to cooperate with Washington and its oil interests. In other words, his aim was to “change the regime's behaviour”, not to change the regime itself.

- IVP616 - May 2026 / Russia, China, Iran

Zionist expansionism in Lebanon seizes upon Hezbollah as a pretext

Gilbert Achcar — 2026-04-01T16:18:00Z

Never had a military initiative of the Lebanese Hezbollah (literally, Party of God) been so much repudiated in Lebanon as its decision on March 2 to launch rockets across the country's southern border with the Israeli state, in retaliation against the killing of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. This opening salvo was immediately seized upon by the Zionist state as a pretext to launch a long-premeditated invasion of southern Lebanon.

- IVP615 - April 2026 / Israel, Lebanon

On the Recent Agreement Between Damascus and the Kurdish Administration

Gilbert Achcar — 2026-02-03T07:44:00Z

“There is therefore little doubt that the present compromise has not resolved the conflict but has instead shifted it from a military to a political phase. This new phase will involve a political struggle that continues the war by other means, just as war itself is a continuation of politics by other means, as the maxim goes.”

- IVP613 - February 2026 / Syria, Kurdistan

The Kurds and the Syrian Regime

Gilbert Achcar — 2026-01-29T13:03:35Z

Recent developments in northern Syria – particularly east of the Euphrates – carry grave implications for both the Kurdish condition and the broader Syrian situation. Let us examine these implications, beginning with the Kurdish issue.

- IVP612 - January 2026 / Syria, Kurdistan

From the Ashes of the Arab Spring

Gilbert Achcar — 2026-01-14T16:20:36Z

Today marks 15 years since the overthrow of Tunisian dictator Ben Ali, one of the high points of the Arab Spring. The events of 2011 gave rise to an impressive wave of revolutions. Almost all were bloodily suppressed.
On January 14, 2011, Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was forced to resign, after four weeks of revolt in the north African country. It was a first major scalp for the wave of upheaval known as the Arab Spring — a democratic upsurge across the region, which, (…)

- IVP612 - January 2026 / Palestine, Tunisia, Morocco, Israel, Arab Revolutions

Iran's regime in a predicament of its own making

Gilbert Achcar — 2025-11-19T12:11:21Z

One of the most famous sayings about revolutions is attributed to Louis Antoine de Saint-Just (1767-1794): “Those who make revolution halfway only dig their own graves.” This saying also applies to armed conflicts ...

- Features / United States (USA), Israel, Iran, Features

Morocco's Gen Z and the Regional Volcano

Gilbert Achcar — 2025-10-22T13:55:50Z

The movement of the Moroccan youth is but the latest manifestation of the regional crisis revealed by the 2011 Arab Spring.

- IVP609 - October 2025 / Tunisia, Morocco, Youth and student movements

A Festival of Obsequiousness

Gilbert Achcar — 2025-10-15T12:18:36Z

“As for the proud Palestinian people, they have spent a century proving their refusal to submit to their oppressors – whether the British Mandate authorities or the Zionist government. They will not kiss Donald Trump's hand or show him “appreciation”, no matter what those who claim to represent them may do.”

- IVP609 - October 2025 / Palestine, United States (USA), Israel, Egypt

A Bitter Account, Two Years into the Catastrophe

Gilbert Achcar — 2025-10-08T08:06:15Z

Despite Israel's strenuous attempts to commemorate the tragic events of 7 October 2023, and the overwhelming Western sympathy it received in the wake of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, what dominates the global conscience today – two years after the operation – is primarily the far greater tragedy that the Zionist state has since inflicted on the people of Gaza and Palestine.

- IVP609 - October 2025 / Palestine, Israel

Gaza and Global Neofascism

Gilbert Achcar — 2025-09-17T09:30:02Z

“The benefit Israel derives from this extreme right-wing international alliance is that these forces have become the most ardent defenders of the Zionist state in general and the Netanyahu government in particular.”

- IVP608 - September 2025 / United States (USA), Britain, Israel, Fascism