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• Is late Shah’s son waiting in the wings to assume the Peacock Throne?

With the nuclear sword overhead arrayed, the world watches helpless as the ongoing war between Israel and Iran rapidly escalates to fever pitch.

Israel’s deadly attack on Teheran came on Friday the 13th night. The opening hours of the theatre of war saw a series of targeted assassinations. The attacks were focused on crippling Iran’s nuclear ambitions, which Israelis claimed stood on the threshold of reaching fruition.

Apart from killing some of Iran’s top military leaders, the precision-guided lethal missiles accurately hit their designated targets, wiping out in one night six of Iran’s top nuclear scientists. Smart bombs also knocked out nuclear and military facilities and destroyed Iran’s air defences.

Following the success of Israel’s missile attack, President Trump issued a chilling message. In a Truth Social post, he said, “Two months ago, I gave Iran a 60-day ultimatum to ‘make a deal’. They should have done it! Today is day 61. I told them what to do, but they just couldn’t get there. Now they have, perhaps, a second chance!”

TRUMP: Ultimate decider

In a separate post, he warned, “There has already been great death and destruction, but there is still time to make this slaughter, with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal, come to an end. Iran must make a deal before there is nothing left and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire.”

Netanyahu said on American TV, “I wanted to take out Ayatollah Khamenei but refrained since Trump told me he didn’t think it would be such a good idea.”

At the initial stage when Israel fired its missiles on Iran in the early hours of Friday night, the US remained in the stands as a mere spectator, confining itself to cheering for Israel. But as the days wore on, the rushing tides of war swept the US and Trump to the fringes of the field of battle.

KHAMENEI: Last days

Though not yet an active participant, Trump was soon barking orders to players from the ropes as the self-proclaimed captain of the team. On June 16, he attended the G7 summit in Canada but cut short his stay and flew back to Washington, saying he had to head an urgent national security briefing at the White House regarding the latest developments in the war situation.

The dramatic exit from the annually held G7 Summit, attended by leaders of the world’s most advanced economic giants, cut the US President in impressive light as ‘pater familias’ of the father of the family, who had the final say on all matters of war and peace. While the children were left to play with their economic jigsaws and blow the candles on the birthday cake, the father left the party early to attend to the business of saving the human family from a future nuclear holocaust.

Though Netanyahu had been restrained by Trump from targeting Iran’s spiritual leader Ayatollah Khamenei, the call to eliminate him raged on, nevertheless. In an interview with ABC News, Netanyahu said, “I believe killing Khamenei would end the conflict rather than escalate it.”

REZA: The man who would be Shah?

Perhaps, Trump knew better. Killing the Ayatollah may be a simple matter, but tackling 30,000-odd fanatical clerics would be quite another ball game. Especially with America left to clean up Netanyahu’s mess. But that didn’t stop him from joining the Jewish choir, ominously singing ‘We know where you’re hiding.’

Trump told reporters on Tuesday, “We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding. He is an easy target but is safe there. We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.”

And how did Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomenei respond to Trump’s merciful reprieve to spare him and not kill him, at least, for now?

Khamenei warned that a US military intervention amid the ongoing Iran–Israel war would lead to “irreversible repercussions”. He declared that Iran “cannot surrender” under external pressure.

But beneath the brave rhetoric, lay an Iran devastated by Israeli missile attacks. With the whole state apparatus in total disarray, with tens of thousands fleeing Teheran, and morale at its lowest ebb, the Government faced imminent collapse. With Iran on her knees, with the Supreme Leader Khamenei on the run, the brutal  45 year reign of the Ayatollahs was drawing to a speedy end.

In the past six days of the war, Iran has not taken Israeli missile strikes lying down but has retaliated, firing missiles, hypersonic weapons, and drones at Israeli targets. According to Newsweek, the casualty figures are over 585 Iranians dead and over 1300 injured, including 239 civilians. In Israel, 24 civilian deaths have been confirmed. The toll of war speaks for itself, doesn’t it?

This week, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)—the UN’s nuclear watchdog—said Iran had amassed enough uranium enriched up to 60% purity—a short technical step away from weapons grade, or 90%—to potentially make nuclear bombs. The Director General said Iran had not taken the final step toward making the nuclear bomb. But the Israelis couldn’t afford to complacently rest and call the whole war off on the strength of the Director General’s assurance alone.

If Israel’s stated military objective was to annihilate Iran’s nuclear capabilities, Israel found, to her dismay, that weapons in her own arsenal couldn’t meet the challenge of blasting Iran’s Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, which lay buried thousands of feet below, wiht a protective layer of rock above it.

Only the US had the necessary bomb to do the job and the plane to fly it on long-haul missions and return undetected. The bomb: The precision-guided 30,000-pound GBU-57 series Massive Ordnance Penetrator, commonly called the bunker buster. The plane: The B2 Stealth bomber.

The snag was, would the US use it and get directly involved in the Israel-Iran war? The answer was given on Thursday by White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, who said, “I have a message directly from the President, and I quote: ‘Based on the fact that there was a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.’”

Within the President’s two-week window, anything can happen. Israel shifting its focus, from destroying Iran’s nuclear programme to opting for ‘regime change’ in Iran was fast gaining ground in Israel and in America. Considering the potential danger of radiation leaks if bunker busters were used to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities, the better option was to replace the regime with a puppet leader and send in a specialised team to safely blow it up with a series of controlled explosions.

Waiting in the wings for the summons to arrive is the late Shah’s son, Reza Pahlavi. The exiled Crown Prince stands ready and willing to assume the Peacock Throne, the royal seat of his forebears.

Two days after Israel launched their missile attack on Iran, he appealed to the Iranian people to free Iran from the Ayatollahs’ grip. On Thursday he appeared again on US television news, this time with a definite offer to serve his country in whatever capacity the people wished.

Whether he will be installed, even as a stopgap Shah or not, will be a matter for Trump to decide. But one thing is for sure. The final curtain on this Israel-Iran theatre of war will not fall until the villain of the piece, Ayatollah Khamenei, completely disappears from the stage.

As said in the desert, destiny is writ on the shifting sands.

Vraie becomes Colombo’s mayor but Sarangika steals municipal’s limelight VRAIE: New Mayor Though Vraie Cally Balthazaar won Colombo’s mayoral office, the woman who stole the municipal limelight on Monday was, undoubtedly, the Western Province Local Government Commissioner Sarangika Jayasundera. To her the moment, to her the glory. Monday’s election proceedings catapulted her to national fame and made her the new pinup girl among JVP supporters, even idolised in Parliament as the darling of Lanka’s public servants. Despite opposition demands for an open ballot to elect the mayor, her stubborn insistence on sticking to her own compass as a guide resulted in a secret election that made JVP’s Vraie Balthazaar Colombo’s First Citizen. Sarangika Jayasundera may have had her reasons to follow her own dictates rather than the Public Administration Ministry’s guidelines issued this year, which state that in the absence of a single party winning 51 per cent of the seats, any demand for an open or secret ballot to elect the mayor should be by an open vote. Furthermore, when opposition members pointed out that other local government commissioners in other areas were following the Public Administration roadmap and holding open elections, Sarangika flatly refused to tread the beaten track that other commissioners were treading, decreeing, instead, that she would heed her own counsel and stick to her own path, irrespective of what the rest followed. Sarangika’s decision to hold the election shrouded in secrecy certainly robbed the splendour of Vraie Balthazaar’s victory. Ironically, with or without her secrecy ruling, Balthazaar may have clinched the mayorship in an open, transparent vote. Despite opposition MP Mujibur Rahman’s belief, his candidate Riza Zarook would have scooped the lot of independents, who can say for certain whether the 13 were fixed on openly nailing their colours to Vraie Balthazaar’s mast? As a result, Vraie Balthazaar could not savour the pristine milk of victory in the manner her victory deserved to be toasted. All because of a public official’s high-handed attitude to ensure the election was wrapped in a shroud of secrecy and not conducted in an open and transparent manner, ruled the day. But Sarangika hasn’t forsaken her crusade to arbitrarily shroud every municipal election she presides over in utmost secrecy. She tried it again on Tuesday at Seethawaka, where, to her dismay, she met her Waterloo. When she had laid down her own ad hoc secrecy rules as she had done in Colombo the previous day, the opposition walked out en masse in protest. Taken aback, with the puff gone out of her sails, she floundered on the rocks of irresolution and was forced to postpone the election to another uncertain day. Even Malima supporters inspirational guru, Professor Devasiri, could scarce forbear to condemn in his YouTube channel, secret ballots as ‘unethical in politics’. If the demand for an open ballot is mainly to determine who the Judases are in the camp, how the same objective can be achieved in the event of a secret ballot to conceal betrayers being decided upon by the municipal commissioner was demonstrated at Kolonnawa Urban Council on Tuesday, where again Sarangika Jayasundera presided as the Commissioner. At Kolonnawa, where the NPP had won nine seats while the opposition had secured 10, when the Kolonnawa Commissioner decided to impose a cloak of secrecy on the ballot, opposition members staged a walkout. However, one remained behind. When eyes turned to inquire who the traitor was in the pack, it would have come as a tremendous shock to the opposition members to discover that the Judas was none other than Susil Kumara, the SJB member who had secured the highest number of preferential votes for the SJB at last month’s Palath Sabha elections. With Susil Kumara selling out his party, on whose ticket he had been elected as a member, it came as no surprise when JVP’s Dhammika Wijayamuni was elected as the Council’s chairman, with Susil Kumara receiving his thirty shilling deputy chairman seat. It also revealed the stinking levels of politics that still exist, despite the ruling party’s claim to have transcended the sewers and not hobnob with those in the corrupt opposition. But while SJB councillors in the suburbs had discovered there were more ways than one to skin a cat and expose the inner visage, their counterparts in Colombo had hopelessly failed to have a fallback battle plan to expose the Judases as downright scum, unfit to walk upon the earth. The SJB-led opposition seems to have lost the killer instinct and to ‘go for the kill’, come what may. They had nothing to lose if they had dramatically staged a walkout from the chamber in protest. Knowing full well, with Judases amidst, the dice was loaded against them with the Commissioner bent on holding the ballot in secret, a walkout from the proceedings would, at least, have left the traitors unmasked. Or did the SJB leadership hold the document signed the day before by 60 councillors, pledging their support to opposition joint candidate Riza Zarook, as an article of faith? Weren’t they aware of how Judas pledged his faith in Christ and betrayed him in the morning with a kiss on his cheek? While SJB’s Mujibur Rahman placed blind faith in three score men to predict his candidate’s win, JVP’s Watagala reposed his trust on scientific laws and predicted the previous night, “As sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, Vraie Balthazaar will be mayor by noon.” Amen. To the victor the spoils, and the applause. Congratulations to Vraie Balthazaar, Colombo’s new Her Worship the Mayor. While the SJB’s policy of winning the people’s hearts and minds, not by adopting aggressive tactics but in a most genteel manner as ‘harmless as the dove’, is most admirable, isn’t it also necessary to expect, plan and be ready to successfully meet the unexpected by being ‘sharp as the serpent’?