Those who believe the reign of terror is over in Iran are sadly mistaken. The terror will go on just perpetrated by someone else. Last month Donald Trump said he stood with the Iranian people when they rose up in protest and then he watched on while they were massacred in their thousands by the regime.

Ayatollah Ali Khomeini had recently named Ali Larijani as his successor because although Trump said more talks were due to take place next week, he sensed with the US military build-up that this was eerily similar to the lead-up to the attack on Iraq in 2003. Except Trump did not bother to make a case before the United Nations or even his own Congress. Even his deputy J.D. Vance has gone very silent.

Just as in Zimbabwe, the tyrant Robert Mugabe was replaced by Emmerson Mnangagwe, a leader who also had blood on his hands, Khomeini’s successor played a huge role in the recent slaughter of protesters.

Trump thinks the American military is a toy with which to play. Putin thought the same about the Russian armed forces in 2022. They have both mired themselves in ongoing conflict the consequences of which the rest of the world will have to bear.