An Open Letter to Axios: On the Joint US-Israeli Attack on Iranian Gas Infrastructure
To the Editors and Journalists at Axios, We write regarding your March 18th report, “Israel strikes Iran natural gas facility in coordination with U.S.” While you correctly highlight the novelty of targeting natural gas infrastructure and note the Trump administration’s involvement, your framing significantly understates the implications and misrepresents the nature of this event. Your claim that
“The Israeli Air Force struck a natural gas processing facility” downplays the documented and undeniable direct participation of the United States in this act of aggression. The article states that the strike was “coordinated with and approved by the Trump administration,” yet fails to detail the actual US military assets deployed to the region, including carrier strike groups and B-52 bombers,
signaling a joint operation rather than a mere green light for Israeli action. This is not isolated; when CENTCOM attributed a KC-135 tanker crash in Iraq years ago to mechanical failure, resistance forces had already claimed a shootdown, a consistent pattern of the US downgrading combat losses to non-combat incidents. Your piece also neglects to mention the broader context of 45 years of
crippling sanctions and systematic regime-change operations against Iran, demonstrating a remarkable lack of historical depth. The targeting of essential energy infrastructure, vital for a civilian population already reeling under decades of economic warfare, constitutes a clear violation of international law. This aggression mirrors historical patterns, such as the 1988 downing of Iran Air Flight