As military build-up intensifies around Iran, West Asia Strategist and Senior Journalist Dr. Waiel Awwad makes a chilling claim: this time, war may not just be rhetoric. He argues the escalation isn’t really about Iran’s nuclear facilities, nor about nationwide protests, nor even about sanctions and economic strain. Instead, he suggests a far more consequential objective, what he calls the “disintegration of Iran.” In this interview, Aayesha Varma helps unpack the power politics behind the headlines. Why now? Dr. Awwad hints that domestic turbulence in the United States, ranging from renewed scrutiny around Donald Trump and the lingering shadow of Jeffrey Epstein, to allegations involving Israel’s Mossad could be blackmailing. Is America’s Middle East policy being ‘hijacked’ as he suggests? And then there’s the bigger question: Is Washington pursuing stability or leverage? From Iraq to Libya, history offers examples that critics say prove U.S. interventions often align more with self-interest than global peace. If Iran is next, what would that mean for the region, oil markets, and global power equations?