By Hedelberto López Blanch on April 6, 2026
image: Adán Iglesias Toledo.
The illegal, devastating, and bloody U.S.-Israeli war against the Islamic Republic of Iran has also brought serious consequences upon the aggressors because they did not foresee that they would face powerful resistance very different from their previous aggressions in the Middle East against countries such as Libya, Syria, or Iraq.
Despite the massive censorship in the media controlled by Washington and Tel Aviv, the successful actions undertaken by Tehran against U.S. military bases in nations in the region have come to light; attacks on aircraft carriers that were forced to withdraw from the area; the downing of planes and helicopters; extensive damage inflicted on several Israeli cities; and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, leaving the Donald Trump administration with no choice but to seek a way out of this quagmire.
The convicted pedophile U.S. president (with his usual ego and arrogance) asserts in his daily off the cuff briefings that Iran has been defeated and that he wants to talk, but the political responses from Iranian leaders and the military forces on the battlefield tell a different story.
Despite the indiscriminate bombings of schools, hospitals, scientific research centers, and the general population, Iran’s resistance and offensive against the aggressors have continued, prompting Trump to send a “15-point plan” to Islamic leaders to seek a way out of the quagmire.
As if it were the victor in the conflict, the document proposes the easing of “sanctions,” supervision of the Iranian program by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the elimination of all long- and medium-range missiles, and the opening of the Strait of Hormuz—but it makes no mention of the destruction caused or the murders of Iranian leaders, children, women, and the elderly, which would go unpunished.
As expected, Tehran rejected these demands and presented its own countermeasures because it does not accept surrender as stipulated in that text.
In turn, it laid out six points for a ceasefire:
The fact is that throughout its millennia-long history, Iran knows that making concessions for negotiations with an arrogant and powerful enemy has never worked.
Recent examples have proven this. In Iraq, Saddam Hussein negotiated a ceasefire in 1991 brokered by a U.S.-led UN coalition, withdrew from Kuwait, and the war was temporarily halted. Then they subjected him to 12 years of aggressive “sanctions,” leaving the infrastructure in ruins and preventing the import of medicines and food, resulting in the starvation deaths of more than 500,000 children and elderly people.
Following a massive campaign based on the lie that the regime possessed weapons of mass destruction and with the country completely weakened, in 2003, the coalition led by the United States and Great Britain attacked, ravaged Iraq, and assassinated Saddam Hussein. Negotiating under false pretenses worked for them because they weakened the government and seized control of Iraqi oil.
The situation with Libya was similar. Muammar Gaddafi nationalized foreign oil companies, attempted to create a regional currency to replace the dollar; raised the standard of living for his people; and had the highest GDP per capita in Africa, with free healthcare and education. But his example was unforgivable to the West’s oil ambitions, which gradually closed all doors on him until, in 2003, they pushed him into negotiations.
Thus, he had to abandon his weapons program, allowed international inspectors to enter to dismantle the nuclear program; cooperated with U.S. intelligence against Al Qaeda; and “normalized” relations with the West.
None of that was enough. They gradually shut down the country until, in 2011, NATO—led by the United States, the United Kingdom, and France—violently bombed the country for seven months. Gaddafi was captured and killed.
Today it remains a devastated state with clashes between armed gangs, but the West achieved its goal: to destabilize an inconvenient government in a region rich in oil.
In Venezuela, following the January 3 attack on various locations across the country and the kidnapping of its legitimate president, Nicolás Maduro, and his partner Cilia Flores, a sort of “negotiation” has been established whereby the United States receives the nation’s oil and administers the proceeds from its sale. So far, calm has been maintained in the country, and everyone is waiting to see what the future consequences will be.
In the case of Iran, it has been attacked on two occasions while “serious meetings” with Washington were underway or planned. First on June 13, 2025, when a meeting was scheduled for June 15. Iran had to defend itself for 12 days and practically make the aggressors understand that their losses would be significant. A few months later, they proposed resuming talks. Negotiations began, but on February 28, they repeated the same tactic when both sides had agreed to meet in Vienna.
Iran knows the nature of its aggressors very well; it has confronted them with courage and intelligence and understands, as the Heroic Guerrilla Ernesto Che Guevara taught us, that “imperialism cannot be trusted one iota.”
Hedelberto López Blanch is a Cuban journalist. He writes for the daily newspaper Juventud Rebelde and weekly Opciones and a frequent contributor to Cuba en Resumen. He is the author of many books including “Cuban Emigration to the United States,” “Secret Stories of Cuban Doctors in Africa,” and “Miami, Dirty Money,” among others.
Source: Cuba en Resumen