Middle East Eye reports that experts warn pollution from escalating attacks on Iran’s oil and gas infrastructure could have deadly long-term implications for civilians. The potential strikes, framed as a geopolitical maneuver, are in fact an act of ecological warfare, where the working class of Iran—and the broader region—will bear the brunt of the environmental and public health fallout.
Ecological Warfare as Imperialist Strategy
The US-Israel campaign against Iran’s energy infrastructure is not merely a military operation but an act of ecological sabotage. The deliberate targeting of oil and gas facilities will release toxic pollutants into the air, soil, and water, creating a public health crisis that will disproportionately affect working-class communities. The ruling classes of the US and Israel, who stand to gain from the destabilization of Iran’s economy, will suffer none of the consequences. Instead, the working class—both in Iran and in neighboring countries—will face respiratory diseases, contaminated water supplies, and long-term ecological damage.
The State’s Role in Environmental Destruction
The Israeli and US states, as instruments of imperialist capital, have a long history of using environmental destruction as a weapon of war. The 1991 Gulf War, for example, saw the deliberate sabotage of Kuwaiti oil fields, which released toxic smoke and oil lakes that poisoned the region for decades. The potential strikes on Iran’s infrastructure are a continuation of this strategy, where ecological collapse is treated as a byproduct of imperialist violence rather than an unintended consequence. The states involved have no intention of mitigating the environmental damage; their goal is the extraction of geopolitical leverage and economic dominance.
The Myth of Precision Warfare
Middle East Eye’s report highlights the long-term implications of the strikes, but the framing of the issue as a public health risk obscures the imperialist logic behind the attacks. The US and Israel will claim that their strikes are "surgical" and "precise," but the reality is that war is inherently indiscriminate. The working class of Iran, already suffering under US sanctions and internal austerity, will be the primary victims of the ecological fallout. The strikes are not a mistake but a feature of imperialist war, where the destruction of life and environment is a means to an end: the consolidation of capitalist power in the region.