Val Moghadam
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS have passed since the September 2001 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon, by a group of Arab men who had commandeered commercial planes. It is worth asking what has changed in inter-state relations within a capitalist world-system dominated by a hegemon.
The first question that has come to my mind recently: What explains the love affair between the United States and Saudi Arabia?
It is true that the Saudis did cooperate with the U.S. regime in the 1980s. Following initial CIA sabotage against the left-wing government that had come to power in Afghanistan in April 1978, the United States – with the collaboration of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan (and initially, Iran as well as China), along with men from across the Arab and Muslim-majority world – encouraged and armed the tribal-Islamist Mujahidin uprising. That effort intensified once the Soviet Union sent troops in late 1979 to support the beleaguered left-wing government.(1)
Among those “Arab Afghans” who were trained and armed in Pakistani camps near the Afghan border was a certain Osama bin Laden. However, and as we all know, bin Laden later turned against the United States.and was among the masterminds of the 9/11 attacks. To a very great degree, therefore, he was a creature, and a creation, of the U.S. war against the Afghan government and its Soviet ally, and he came from a prominent Saudi family.
It is worth recalling that of the 19 terrorists on the hijacked flights that caused nearly 3000 American deaths, fully 15 were from Saudi Arabia.
What was the George W. Bush regime’s response? There were several: first, to immediately prepare flights back home for prominent Saudis in the United States; second, to put aside damning evidence of Saudi complicity in the attacks; third, to launch a “war on terror” that completely bypassed Saudi Arabia but focused on Afghanistan and soon Iraq; and fourth, to declare Iran to be part of the “axis of evil.”
This label was applied to Iran, even though Iran had had absolutely nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks; to the contrary, Iranian citizens had organized a candlelight vigil in solidarity with the United States, and government officials had expressed considerable sympathy while also offering to help find the terrorists next door in Afghanistan.(2)
The Trump Gambit
Jumping ahead to the Trump regime, recall that it abrogated the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement (formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA), which had been signed by the Security Council’s P-5 plus Germany and representatives of the European Union, to monitor Iran’s nuclear enrichment program.
The decision to withdraw, made at Israeli prime minister Netanyahu’s instigation, was followed by “maximum pressure sanctions” on Iran starting in 2018, which have had significant effects on the Iranian economy, state revenue, employment, and citizen well-being. Given Iran’s understandable skepticism of U.S. agreements, the state resumed nuclear enrichment.
Both the Trump and Netanyahu regimes claim that Iran desires a nuclear weapon, which the Iranian state has always vociferously denied. The hypocrisy is breathtaking, given that (a) the U.S. not only is a nuclear power but is the only one that used it, in 1945 against Japan, and (b) Israel – initially with the assistance of Britain and France, and later the United States. – surreptitiously developed nuclear weapons in the latter part of the previous century, although never admitting to having done so.
But a second breathtaking hypocrisy is in the works: U.S. assistance to Saudi Arabia for the development of its own nuclear capability.
I was intrigued by a recent article in Against the Current which noted that in September 2025, the Saudi Minister of Energy declared that “the Kingdom is moving toward utilizing nuclear energy and its radiation applications for peaceful purposes … including the construction of the first nuclear power plant in the Kingdom to achieve multiple objectives” including “advancing sustainable development.”(3)
The author, M.V. Ramana, adds that sun-drenched Saudi Arabia could more logically (and safely) develop solar energy. Moreover, a nuclear cooperation agreement was signed in July 2026 by U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Saudi Minister of Energy Abdulaziz bin Salman.
Drawing on a White House published source, Ramana points out that the agreement can be read to allow Saudi Arabia to develop the capacity to enrich uranium. In other words, what Iran was not allowed to do – whether under the Obama or the Trump regime – is permissible for Saudi Arabia. The blatant double standard cannot be denied.
The long sanctions regime against Iran has been devastating for both the country’s larger economy and for citizens, as I and others have written elsewhere.(4) But Cuba has suffered even longer under what is known as the U.S. embargo or blockade.
Many states across the globe have extended support for Cuba’s annual resolution, raised at the UN’s General Assembly, condemning the U.S. blockade, although very little material support has been offered to Cuba. Meanwhile, among the handful of states that side with Washington against the Cuban resolution are the Israeli and – interestingly – Ukrainian regimes.
Readers will know that in June 2025, Israel and the U.S. launched an unprovoked assault on Iran, which continues at this writing (September 2026). The assault is illegal under international law and wholly asymmetrical, given that it is launched by two nuclear powers.
Given the weakness of global governance institutions, the overwhelming military power of the United States and Israel, and the support of NATO and the European Commission, no action will be taken to hold the aggressors to account.
Apart from the horrendous assault on a primary school in late February 2026 that killed between 120 and 175 children and their teachers,(5) the combination of sanctions and war have had devastating effects on the Iranian economy and the people.
Iran’s response has been to use its Shahed drones and missiles to hit U.S. bases in the region, 14 of which surround Iran. In March 2026, Ukraine offered to help the U.S. counter the drones.(6) In July 2026 it joined the United States in targeting Iranian shipping.
To some extent, the breakdown in the relationship between Iran and Ukraine is an unfortunate outcome of the accidental downing of a Ukrainian flight. That tragedy occurred in January 2020 – during a “fog of war” moment after the United States had murdered Iran’s top general, Ghassem Soleimani, and his Iraqi counterpart, via a drone strike at Baghdad’s airport. This same General Soleimani had collaborated with the pro-U.S. Afghan Northern Alliance to fight the Taliban after 9/11.
What has changed since 9/11? Perhaps the new members of the “axis of evil”(7)
Notes
- Zbigniew Brzezinski, in his interview with the French journal Le Nouvel Observateur, acknowledged that the Soviet “invasion” of Afghanistan was partly provoked by U.S. actions, particularly the covert support for the Mujahideen. He stated that the U.S. aimed to counter Soviet influence in the region, which ultimately led to significant geopolitical consequences. To correct the record on “invasion”: the Afghan government pleaded with the Soviet Union for help in countering the Mujahideen jihad. See https://rapeutation.com/lit.brzezinskiinterviewlenouvel.htm and https://dgibbs.arizona.edu/content/brzezinski-interview-2
back to text - See The Christian Science Monitor, https://www.csmonitor.com/2001/0924/p9s1-coop.html. Photos of the vigil may be found on https://theotheriran.com/2015/09/12/irans-exceptional-reaction-to-911-attacks-candlelit-vigils-for-the-victims-and-60k-soccer-fans-respected-a-minutes-silence/
back to text - M.V. Ramana, “The Growing Risk of Nuclear War,” Against the Current (Sept./Oct. 2026, 11-13), https://againstthecurrent.org/atc244/the-growing-risk-of-nuclear-war/
back to text - V. M. Moghadam, “The Gendered Politics of Iran-U.S. Relations: Sanctions, the JCPOA, and Women’s Security.” Third World Quarterly, vol. 45 no. 7 (April 2024): 1199-1218, https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2024.2314005. See also the Iran Under Sanctions reports: https://rethinkingiran.com/iran-under-sanctions
back to text - On the attack on the primary school in Minab, southern Iran, see, inter alia, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-girls-school-missile-strike-trump-israel-preliminary-inquiry-b2936875.html and https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cewrx0ldlkko
back to text - “Ukraine to help US and its allies counter Iranian drones in Middle East, says Zelenskyy,” in https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/06/ukraine-zelenskyy-iran-war-help-us-israel-fight-drones
- The Ukrainian attack on Iranian shipping, and in the Caspian Sea, no less, was widely reported on: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/26/ukraine-strikes-iranian-vessels-tehran-accuses-kyiv-of-hostile-act.html, https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-iran-caspian-strike-12246674, and https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwyj7yl0xndo. Iran has not retaliated.”
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