Putin seems to be the one reaping benefits of this war
We have seemingly reached the stage of Donald Trump’s presidency where the Kremlin gets a pass even when it provides the Iranian regime with targeting information about US forces in the midst of a war.
Top administration figures, from the President down, engaged in a collective shrug of the shoulders when questioned about Vladimir Putin’s reported decision to help Iran’s military launch potentially deadly attacks on US troops.
You read that right… the Trump administration is effectively saying that it doesn’t care if the Kremlin is helping Iran kill or injure American troops.
“It clearly is not making a difference with respect to the military operations in Iran, because we are completely decimating them,” the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, dismissing any suggestion that the US should be appalled by Russia’s actions.
Pete Hegseth, the US “Secretary of War”, told CBS News that he is similarly unconcerned about the Kremlin’s actions. “No one’s putting us in danger,” he said, adding that “the only ones that need to be worried right now are Iranians that think they are going to live”.
Even Peter Doocy, the normally pliant White House correspondent for Fox News, found himself being attacked when he dared to ask about Russia’s efforts to help Iran’s military. “What a stupid question,” Trump hit back.
Putin has many reasons to celebrate this US-Israeli war on Iran. Trump’s decision to topple Iran’s leadership has put fresh strains on US relationships with governments across Europe, the Middle East and further afield. The conflict has also shifted the world’s attention away from Russia’s war on Ukraine, meaning Putin – for now, at least – does not even need to worry about further stalling efforts to resolve the conflict.
And Putin will be acutely aware that Trump is now leading a war that is every bit as legally questionable as his own invasion of Ukraine. Like Moscow, the Trump administration has not even tried to justify its actions as being within international law, apart from proffering an evidence-free claim that Iran posed an “imminent national security threat” to the US.
Trump’s failure to outline a plan for Iran’s future, or at least one rooted in reality, points to a drawn-out and violent crisis. It also suggests that strains with European leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer, are only going to intensify.
Putin will have been buoyed by Trump’s decision to eviscerate his personal relationship with Starmer over the weekend, when he responded to reports that the UK would send two aircraft carriers to the Middle East by saying: “We don’t need them any longer – but we will remember. We don’t need people that join wars after we’ve already won!”
Yesterday, the two men spoke by phone, their first conversation in over a week. The extent to which they were able to patch up their relationship is unclear, with No 10 simply saying they “discussed the latest situation in the Middle East and military co-operation between the UK and US”, and that Starmer conveyed his “heartfelt condolences” over the six American fatalities in the conflict.
Trump has also threatened to halt all trade with Spain in response to its leaders refusing to allow US military planes to use airbases on Spanish soil. Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, continues to call the war “an extraordinary mistake”.
It’s a far cry from when President George W Bush ensured his main allies, notably the UK, were fully behind him before he launched his ill-conceived 2003 invasion of Iraq.
The longer the war with Iran drags on, the better it will be for Putin, with the world losing sight of who is supposed to be the good guy and who is the bad guy. Putin doesn’t need to do anything. He can sit on the sidelines watching as his rivals become increasingly divided.
Trump’s failure to outline a plan for Iran’s future points to a drawn-out crisis