Letters | US has succeeded in plunging Middle East into dangerous conflict
Readers discuss the Middle East situation, helping young Hongkongers meet the AI challenge, and Hong Kong as an international city
On February 6, Oman mediated the resumption of high-level US-Iran talks that had been suspended since June 2025. Three rounds of negotiations yielded progress. However, the diplomatic process collapsed abruptly on February 28, when Israel launched a precise strike in Tehran, killing supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and senior Iranian officials including the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces.
Tactically, the strike achieved its immediate goal: removing Iran’s long-serving supreme leader.
But if the United States and Israel had expected the strike to be followed by large-scale public unrest, a rapid collapse of the Revolutionary Guard and a favourable environment for regime change, the reality was the opposite.
Iran retaliated by targeting US military bases across the Gulf. Infrastructure at the US’ Fifth Fleet headquarters and Al Udeid Air Base was hit, while Israeli cities endured missile attacks.
The US has deployed two aircraft carriers, with a third reportedly expected, yet its campaign has fallen short of expectations. Hopes to involve Kurdish forces are opposed by Turkey. Time might not be on Washington’s side.