'We do not have a single war on Iran: We have an Israeli war and an American war'

Delano d’Souza is pleased to welcome Scott Lucas, journalist and Professor of American Studies and International Politics at the Clinton Institute, University College Dublin. Mr. Lucas warns there has been no breakthrough whatsoever in diplomacy. He describes this as strategic uncertainty dressed up in a narrative that does not exist. What appears outwardly as decisive action is, in practice, a reactive process shaped by market pressures, geopolitical signaling, and misread assumptions about regime fragility. The expectation that escalation will produce capitulation misunderstands both the resilience of the Iranian political system and the divergence of objectives between key actors, particularly the United States and Israel. Rather than a unified campaign, what is unfolding is a fragmented and improvised set of strategies, where military pressure, diplomatic outreach, and economic concessions coexist without any coherence. At its core, this is not a story of imminent transformation, rather of misalignment, where competing visions of victory ensure longterm instability.