Iran and the Ramadan War
Editorial Note: The following is a preview of AISC Red Paper #2 on Iran and the Ramadan War, coming soon.
The 1979 Iranian Revolution ceased to be ‘Iranian’ as of 28 February 2026. It is now Humanity’s Revolution and greatest cause. Our fate lies in its hands. - Professor Jeannette Graulau, Co-Founder, Anti-Imperialist Scholars Collective
The Anti-Imperialist Scholars Collective (AISC) stands in solidarity with the Islamic Republic of Iran’s courageous response to the savagery of U.S. imperialism at a decisive stage of its decline. Since 1979, the United States and the zionist entity have sought to destroy the Islamic Republic, balkanize it, and wipe it off the planet. This effort came in many forms—from the U.S. proxy war waged by Iraq and multilateral sanctions regimes, asset theft, assassinations, and decapitation strikes, to the 12-Day War of June 2025, today’s Ramadan War and the assassination of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. When the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003, it became clear to Iran that a U.S. invasion was on the horizon. The U.S.-zionist launch of the 12-Day War while Iran and the U.S. were in nuclear negotiations revealed the acceleration of the U.S. war drive, a desperate attempt to save the empire from its rapid decline.
The Ramadan War started on Saturday, February 28, when the United States and Israel conducted air raids across Iran. The deadliest single attack of the war thus far occurred on that first day when the U.S. murdered at least 175 girls and staff at an elementary school in Minab. But the opening salvo of the war appears to have been the assassination of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei while in a meeting at his home office.
The magnitude of this brazen action cannot be understated. The United States immediately claimed responsibility for the premeditated assassination against a legitimate head of state, even calling it a major achievement. The assassination of a sitting head of state by another head of state represents a catastrophic and irreversible transformation of global politics and international relations. The world has reached one of the most dangerous phases of human history, brought on by the desperate attempt to save a dying empire.
This is the historical and geopolitical context through which we must understand the Ramadan War. Iran, as a near-peer adversary of the United States, is waging a regional war against all the assets of U.S. imperialism in western Asia. Its objective is the removal of U.S. imperialism from the region. It is thus a war for the fate of Palestine, and a war that belongs to all those terrorized by U.S. imperialism, from the southern shores of Africa to Russia in the north, China and Korea in the east and Cuba and Venezuela in the west. It is a war for the colonized and subjugated peoples of Turtle Island, victimized by North American continental imperialism. The Ramadan War is a continuation of the Islamic Revolution of Iran, but it is now humanity’s revolutionary war. As Iran stands tall, we too stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the courageous people of the region. The fate of the planet demands no less.