Today I am providing my English translation of an article by Lo Sparviero (The Sparrowhawk), originally in Italian, published on ComeDonChisciotte.org on Monday 7th July 2025.
(All formatting and footnotes original).

It is impossible to know whether the “truce between the parties” sensationally and incredibly announced by Trump on the night of 23rd June [2025], a few hours after Iran's purely symbolic retaliation against the US base in Qatar, will actually be respected and how long it will last. The American journalist and highly trustworthy Mike Whitney, whose eloquent (partial) “summary” of the armed conflict currently on standby is reproduced below, notes that on the ceasefire agreement reached “through secret diplomatic channels, mainly with the mediation of Qatar, there is no formal agreement between Iran and Israel, no signed document or explicit commitment”.
The reasons of realpolitik that forced “the parties” to stop one step away from the abyss, which means one step away from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz (approved on Sunday 22nd June [2025] by the Tehran parliament) and from an effectively devastating Iranian retaliation against the US bases “hosted” by the… “Arab brothers”, may cease to exist at any moment. This is due to the “abnormal” but revolutionary nature of the times we are living in and the nature of the struggle in West Asia, which we have defined as a a supreme struggle, for life or death. Times in which we should not be surprised if something unthinkable (in “normal times”) were to happen, for example (one of the “unthinkable” examples) if al-Aqsa were to be damaged by some stray bomb... (after all, how many “unthinkable” traumatic events have already happened, starting with the Covid-19 terrorist campaign and the universal lockdown?!). In this article, we will try to clarify as best we can the concept of the supreme struggle that is currently underway.
To begin with, let us say that we hope that the developments of the “diplomatic solution” brought about, in our humble opinion, by the overall political intelligence of the bourgeois chancelleries – including that of the Kremlin – will not follow the outcome of the “truce” that Hezbollah was forced into in November 2024. In other words, we hope that this moment in the supreme struggle (= existential, for life or death) in West Asia will not prove to be the turning point for the forces of the Axis of Resistance and for the Islamic Republic of Iran itself. [We hope] That the agreements “stipulated” in some way and in an emergency between 23rd and 24th June [2025] do not pave the way for the dismantling of the Axis and thus for the dismantling of the Islamic Republic, as is absolutely the intention of imperialism and its Arab-Islamic lackeys.
Certainly, between the intentions of imperialism (which are clear and obvious to us) and their actual realisation on the battlefield, there are many variables and obstacles, the first of which is the mettle of a people and a regime such as those in Iran. Tough nuts to crack! As are the entire fighting people of Gaza and the West Bank, the Houthis, the Lebanese Hezbollah, literally strangled but still standing... tough nuts!
Following the line of reasoning we have previously outlined1, we believe we can say that if the truce agreement is violated, it will be by Israeli will or, more precisely, by Netanyahu's will (read: the centre of power not only within the Zionist entity embodied in the person of the executioner Netanyahu).
If, in a country severely shaken by powerful and calibrated waves of Iranian missile attacks, he senses that his political defenestration/elimination is one of the viable and useful options for ensuring the stability, if not the very survival, of the Zionist state and for establishing a renewed imperialist pax (sine qua non condition: the disarticulation/destruction of the Axis), he will not hesitate to violate any agreement, even if it means going against his friend and partner Trump (to whom, as you will recall, he gave a golden pager).
But there is more that we wish to say. Let us proceed in order, following the highly tense events that unfolded starting on Friday, 13th June 2025.
TREACHEROUS ATTACK AND COUNTERATTACK
The treacherous Israeli attack on 13th June [2025], coordinated with the US administration, which in the immediately preceding phase had taken steps to lure the Iranians to the infamous “negotiating table”, dealt a severe blow to the Islamic Republic. But it failed in its attempt to “cut off the head of the snake”, as the strategists of imperialism refer to the Islamic Republic.
A decisive factor that allowed the Islamic Republic to repel the imperialist assault and counterattack lies in the fact that the decisive and profound mass of the Iranian people, and in particular the decisive mass of the working class and proletariat of Iran, rallied around the sacrosanct need to defend the country that the clumsily disguised werewolves intend (as usual) to “liberate from tyrants”, i.e. devastate it in the manner of Libya, Syria and Iraq. Despite the very serious economic crisis that weighs heavily on the shoulders of the Iranian working class and the many reasons for deep dissatisfaction and criticism that it may have towards the government and the Islamic regime, calls for uprising “against an evil and oppressive regime” – as stated not only by the executioner Netanyahu but also by a string of internal opponents and a string of external Cecilie Sala [see these 3 articles for more info on her and her story: 1, 2 and 3] – fall miserably on deaf ears. For the moment! They fall miserably on deaf ears, waiting to emerge, should anti-imperialist radicalisation unfortunately weaken or be confined within the country, deprived of its aggressive external projection throughout West Asia. This projection is necessary in order to achieve the two declared “supreme” objectives: one, the expulsion of US forces from the entire area; two, the destruction of the Zionist state entity. These are the objectives of the forces coordinated around the Axis of Resistance, whose fulcrum is the Islamic Republic, which, from their criminal point of view, the imperialists describe as “the head of the snake”.
At the moment, it is the most naive and foolish scum that is coming out into the open, seriously mistiming their “entry into the field”. Carrion such as the “Kurdistan Freedom Party”.

A series of targeted deadly blows were struck by the werewolves of imperialist democracy against the nervous system of the Islamic Republic, which was also hit by the armed action of internal fifth columns and a vast network of infiltrators. We will summarise this, leaving aside the more strictly military aspect and focusing on the political or political-military objective of the criminal operation.
A DEADLY AND TARGETED DECAPITATION/DISARTICULATION OPERATION
Taking advantage of the surprise effect that semi-paralysed Iranian defences in the first 24 hours of the treacherous attack and putting into action the internal bases manoeuvred and armed by the imperialist centres, the following high-ranking political and military commanders were assassinated, in addition to a large group of Iranian scientists and senior technicians. The political objective seems clear to us: to create a scorched earth around Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, targeting in particular a specific political-military faction, namely the “most intransigent” wing of the regime, the one least willing to engage in “negotiations” and “credit opening” to the sirens of imperialism. Our local media-presstitutes gleefully report the following list:
Mohammad Bagheri – Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces since 2016, Bagheri was killed by an Israeli missile on Thursday [12th June 2025] evening, right at the start of Israel's attack on Iran. He was one of the highest-ranking officers in the Iranian army, second only to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah [Sayyed] Ali Khamenei.
Hossein Salami – Commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guards, Salami was also close to Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei. Salami was one of the toughest on Iran's rivals, particularly Israel and the United States.
Gholamali Rashid – Rashid was deputy commander-in-chief of the armed forces and head of the IRGC's Khatam-al Anbiya central headquarters, responsible for coordinating joint military operations. A veteran of the Iran-Iraq war, he welcomed the fact that Iran had regional allies that opposed Israel and the United States, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon or the Houthis in Yemen.
Ali Hajizadeh – Hajizadeh was the commander of the IRGC's Aerospace Force. He led Iran's missile programme and was responsible for the April 2024 missile attack on Israel.
Mohammad Kazemi – Head of intelligence for the Revolutionary Guards, Kazemi was killed in an Israeli attack on Sunday [15th June 2025]. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his death that evening during an interview with the US television channel Fox News. Tehran confirmed the news a few hours later.
Other brigadier generals and senior officers were also killed, including Mohsen Bagheri, Davood Shekhian, Mohammad Bagher Taherpour, Mansour Safarpour, Masoud Tayeb, Khosro Hassani, Mohammad Jafari and Javad Jarsara.
Moreover:
“Israeli forces carried out a targeted operation in the Iranian city of Qom, which led to the elimination of Saeed Izadi, head of the Palestinian branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on 22nd June 2025, calling the operation a significant success for Israeli intelligence. According to Al Jazeera, the assassination of a senior IRGC commander could weaken coordination between Iran and its allies in the region”. (from the Russian website avia-pro.net)
“Ali Shamkhani, political adviser to Iranian leader Ali Khamenei, was also killed in the raids (editor's note on 13 June: actually, he was not killed but seriously wounded). The diplomat, immediately transported by rescuers to the hospital, died three hours later due to the severity of his injuries, as confirmed by several Iranian and US journalists on X. Images of the attack shown by Iranian media show the apartment gutted, while the rest of the building appears intact”.
“Defence Minister Israel Katz, who held a situation assessment with Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, Mossad Director David Barnea and senior IDF officers, reported that most of the Revolutionary Guard Air Force leadership was also killed in the raids, eliminated during a meeting at underground headquarters. Among them was the commander of the Pasdaran air force, General Amir Ali Hajizadeh”.
Furthermore:
Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (editor's note: a member of the “hardline” faction) was reportedly targeted in an assassination attempt on 15th June [2025]. According to an article in News.Az citing Iranian media, Ahmadinejad narrowly escaped an attack after his car was sabotaged. The plan allegedly involved tampering with his car, which was discovered just in time by his security team, preventing a potentially fatal outcome.
“I think it was excellent”, Trump said on 13th June [2025], commenting on the attack. Above all, he claimed credit for the main political target of the operation (which, for what it's worth, i.e. nothing, took place in defiance of any rule of “international law or legality”. We said it above in the introduction: we are living in revolutionary times, in which “the Law” is blatantly flouted. Let the legalists abhor it, that's the way it is. Let's face it):

“Certain Iranian hardliners spoke bravely… now they are all dead”! Thus: now we can think about… getting back around the famous “negotiating table”. Now, among “reasonable and responsible people”, once “the intransigents” have been eliminated.
The plot of the manoeuvre is not only clear (to us) but also has a “pacifist” intent, the “pacifism” of the bandit-gangster, that is. Let us give credit to the patriotic-imperialist MAGA president. The masterpiece of this plot aimed at establishing a renewed imperialist pax in the area would be the removal/elimination of the ogre Netanyahu, as already mentioned. And, of course, the cut/blow to the opposing “extreme wings” (i.e. the forces of the Axis [of Resistance], starting with Hamas) to the great satisfaction of the Arab-Islamic lackeys, led by the Saudi scoundrels, and a large number of Western “sincere pacifists” who can't wait to sink their teeth into the “reactionary and obscurantist” forces of the Axis. Should the plan ever succeed: Nobel Peace Prize, immediately!
However, this is one of the possible developments we are preparing for. Let's get to the facts.
Despite the series of treacherous attacks, the Islamic Republic found the strength to react immediately, on the same day, Friday 13th June [2025]. We report, through a collage, on just one of the immediate counterattacks, also because of its highly symbolic significance. Iranian rockets targeted and struck the HaKirya neighbourhood in the heart of Tel Aviv, known as “the Israeli Pentagon”.
“Nestled in the heart of Tel Aviv, the HaKirya district stands as a testament to the intertwined history of Israel’s military and the urban landscape. Home to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) headquarters, HaKirya serves as a strategic hub, blending military command with the bustling energy of a modern metropolis. Join us on a journey to explore the rich history, strategic significance, and evolving landscape of HaKirya, a locale where tradition and modernity seamlessly coexist.”

The werewolves find themselves vulnerable (they rediscover this vulnerability after the missile strikes they suffered on 1st October 2024 [Operation True Promise II]) to the rockets of an Islamic Republic that has quickly recovered from the semi-paralysis of the early hours. They are seething with rage. Israel Katz, Minister of Defence, barks: “Tehran will burn if the attacks do not stop!”.
Donald Trump demands Iran's unconditional surrender and even the evacuation of the capital.
A metropolis of 9 million inhabitants should be evacuated immediately according to the global sheriff's injunction. Someone who has just mobilised the National Guard in California to “solve” the immigrant problem, just as others before him mobilised the same National Guard in New York to try to “clean up” the increasingly rotten and decaying subway system of the “Big Apple”. It would seem that the circles of werewolves have not really understood the mettle of the peoples and governments they intend to terrorise and devastate. And, we believe, it is not only those circles that have failed to grasp this.
On 16th June [2025], the state TV station in Tehran was bombed, “the megaphone of propaganda and incitement of the tyrannical regime”, croaked the presstitute media. The same method was used during the NATO attack on Belgrade in 1999.
On 17th June [2025], speaking of whores and pimps, the G7 meeting in Canada issued a joint statement, signed “surprisingly” by Trump, recognising Israel's right to defend itself and calling on all parties “to protect civilians”. The political essence of the document produced by the “big seven” is encapsulated in this sentence: “Iran is the main source of instability and terrorism in the region. We have been consistently clear that Iran will never be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon”.
Still on the subject of whores and pimps, here are some other noteworthy facts. On 14th June [2025], Macron, the one who was slapped by his wife or... by “his husband”, as rumoured among the French populace and rabble, declared that France would participate in Israel's “protection and defence operations”. “We have the means to do so”, says this annoying and insolent insect, whom our sans-culotte friends in yellow vests unfortunately failed to crush at the time, as they would have ardently wished. The BlackRock man, currently chancellor in Berlin with proverbial German delicacy, clearly and bluntly states the truth that you know: “Israel does the dirty work for all of us”. As usual, the leader of the British Labour government, Keir Starmer, sent shivers down our spines when he declared on 22nd June [2025] that any attack by Iran on US military bases in the region would be perceived as an attack on a NATO member. The Russian website from which we draw this news2 writes: “The British Prime Minister noted that NATO has a duty to defend its members, including the United States, in the event of direct aggression”.
As for the slimy State of Rome [i.e. Italy], we refer to a concise but very significant news item from www.tag24.it on 19th June [2025], which reports that the “Road map to ratify Italy's involvement in the regime change operation in Tehran” is ready in all its formal (parliamentary chatter) and substantive (military measures) stages.
Everything is ready: Parliament will only have to ratify it. Well! …anyway, it's a progressive step forward compared to the declaration of war on Turkey (for the colonial conquest of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania) in September 1911, when the Parliament in Rome was closed for holidays. Okay, things of the past!… [sic, in English] but just to remember the pre-fascist splendour of Italian capitalism. Tag24.it writes: “Everything is ready for the final attack on the Ayatollah regime, everything is ready to flush out Khamenei”.3
Evidently, our leaders and their scribblers are sure that no one will ever come to flush them out here. From their lairs, here. From their feeding troughs, here. We must acknowledge that they are right to feel safe. And they can breathe a sigh of relief thanks to the truce reached in extremis, one step away from the abyss. The “Road map” and the plans already in place can be, not archived, but put away in a drawer, ready for any eventuality. The State of Rome is ready and willing to do its part in support of the democratic-progressive-liberating mission to “flush out Khamenei” and bring down “the Ayatollahs’ regime”.
On 18 June [2025] Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei addresses the nation for the first time since the treacherous attack. Whatever criticism may (and, for us, must) be levelled at the bourgeois class limits to which the Islamic regime he represents is bound, his austere and solemn figure stands out above the human and political rabble of the “big seven”, worthy representatives of a rotten system, corrupt in mind and spirit. The Supreme Leader fiercely rejects the pathetic demands for surrender and capitulation: “…telling the Iranian nation to surrender is not a wise thing to say…” announcing that harsh punishment awaits the Zionist entity and its American ally.
On 17th June [2025], Sheriff Trump pompously announced: “We know exactly where the so-called “Supreme Leader” is hiding. He is an easy target, but he is safe there. We will not eliminate him, at least not for now”; on Thursday 19th June, the werewolf Israel Katz once again howls like a wounded beast: “Khamenei is like Hitler, he cannot continue to live”.
At this moment of sky-high tension, what we call the overall political intelligence of the bourgeois system intervenes (openly, publicly) through Russian President Putin (“Netanyahu cannot kill Khamenei”) and his spokesman Peskov, who very wisely – overall political intelligence, in fact – declares that “the death of the Ayatollah would open Pandora's box”.
The “Pandora's box” that the wisest and most lucid bourgeois chancelleries fear will open is the uncontrolled fury of the masses. The masses of the “oppressed and the shoeless”, to use the characteristic terminology of Shiite Islam. Of a certain Shiite Islam. The concrete example of what we are referring to is the assault on the American embassy and its occupation in Tehran in November 1979. But this is only a pale example from past history of what the much-feared “opening of Pandora's box” can mean, to be averted by resorting to every possible manoeuvre and every expedient contained in the vast bag of tricks at the disposal of bourgeois chancelleries.
With regard to this aspect, which is absolutely decisive for us in the supreme struggle currently underway, we note without doubt that the major Arab-Islamic squares appear to be under control. Even the most brazen lackeys of imperialism, such as, for example, the rulers of Jordan (guardians of al-Aqsa, the third holiest site in Islam), have managed to keep the reins on the square in Amman. The “shoeless” masses appear to be under control everywhere by the regimes that are the henchmen and servants of imperialism, which, apart from puppet governments, controls a wide and varied range of troublemakers. The aforementioned scoundrels of the Kurdistan Freedom Party are only the most obvious or least cunning.
The wide range under political control (which does not necessarily mean being on the payroll. There is worse. One can serve imperialism for free) extends to certain inept, not to say filthy, “Communist Parties” which bleat in their communiqués for “an immediate end to this war and the cessation of aerial terror and missile attacks by the USA and Israel and missile attacks by the Islamic Republic”4.
“Put flowers in your cannons”, sang I Giganti [literally “The Giants”, an Italian pop band founded in 1964] in the song that became the pacifist anthem of the flower children. “Immediate end” on both sides! Especially since the Iranian “side” is capable of beating the Israeli “side” badly, bleat certain weak Iranian “communists”. According to them, this war “is first and foremost a war to intimidate humanity itself, against every sign of civilisation, freedom and progress”. Instead, and fortunately, it does not intimidate the Iranian people at all, just as, fortunately, it does not intimidate the Axis forces, branded “reactionary” by them (who seem unaware that in doing so they are branding the heroic and epic struggle in Gaza, of which Hamas is the main fighting force, as “reactionary”).
We have focused on these weak, not to say filthy, Iranian “communists” to highlight the extent to which the influence of imperialism and imperialist democracy can reach. How vast is its political range of manoeuvres, which it will resort to in order to contain and crush the uprising of “the oppressed and the shoeless”, rekindled by the formidable blows (which we will discuss and reflect on in the second part of our article) inflicted by the Islamic Republic on the Zionist state, bastion and outpost of imperialism.
Having said all this, let us return to our political chronicle, which cannot fail to mention a fact that has gone unnoticed but is very significant for “our parameters” and with regard to the uprising of the masses. Let us say that at the end of the prayer on Friday 20th June [2025] in Baghdad, we clearly perceived the “right anti-imperialist vibe” among the imposing mass of “the faithful” who took to the streets to show solidarity with Iran, and to say that it will become “tangible” and armed if necessary. If necessary, even against their weak government.
The truce then came, which was also good for cooling down the incandescent Baghdad. The roar of that impressive crowd of “the faithful” remains etched in our souls...
– Part One (To be continued…)
Sul filo del rasoio. Pace, capitolazione, guerra. O thawra! https://comedonchisciotte.org/sul- filo-del-rasoio-pace-capitolazione-guerra-o-thawra/ [This article was translated here - ON THE RAZOR'S EDGE: "PEACE", CAPITULATION, WAR. OR THAWRA!]
Statement issued on 23rd June [2025] by the Workers' Party of Iran – Hekmatist, with the grandiose title: “US imperialist militarism is the lever of intimidation on the world and humanity”
I don't get it. What's it about? That the masses could arise and attack if any harm comes to the leaders of Iran, especially the religious leader?
I think that's it.
But it would be nice to see an article once in a while that drops all the clever journalism and just says things plainly and simply.
And how about the 'masses' ? Just who/what are they? I believe in the Islamic world this is not at all a simple thing. There's a major difference between Sunni and Shia, I know that much. And generally that's reflected on the ground by whole nations being one or the other. I think that's true.
But what about the details? Isn't it time someone laid it out unambiguously and clearly and simply for us?
This very question is central to the issue of Azerbaijhani attack to the north of Iran I think, isn't it?