THE knock-on effects from the Epstein file revelations – the exposure of Mandelson and Mountbatten-Windsor, the resignation of Morgan McSweeney – and the resetting of Trump’s global tariffs, are providing a lot of froth disguising the very real and imminent threat to peace from the US military build-up in the Mediterranean and Middle East over Iran.

According to reports in Al Jazeera and Times Now News, that deployment consists of two aircraft carrier groups, including over 160 F-35 and F/A-18E/F fighter jets and six cruise missile-loaded destroyers.

In addition, more than 120 aircraft – fighter jets, cargo aircraft and aerial refuelling tankers, plus advanced Patriot and THAAD air defence batteries – have been deployed to strategic bases in Jordan, the UAE and Saudi Arabia in the last few days, while long-range B-2 bombers in the US have been placed on alert.

American political scientist Robert Pape says that this represents 40-50 per cent of the deployable US air power in the world – air power on the order of that in the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 war on Iraq. “Never has the US deployed this much force against a potential enemy and not launched strikes,” he adds.

The US State Department has issued a statement: “President Trump has made it clear that the Iranian regime cannot continue to destabilise the whole region.”

This paper has no love for the Iranian government, but developments since the start of the year – not only over Iran, but also Venezuela, Cuba and Greenland – show that it is the US regime which is the most unstable and dangerous in the world.

It has backed Israel’s genocide on Gaza, and now the US ambassador to Israel has said that God has granted Israel the lands stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates, and that they should “take it all.”

The non-issue of the Iranian nuclear programme is being used to justify a full-scale US war on Iran, in order to seize its oil, smash Iran’s growing links with Russia and China, and destroy its influence on armed “Axis of Resistance” movements in Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.

This will not be a short conflict. As one military expert has pointed out on X, the range of hardware assembled suggests ongoing air strikes on Iran supported by specialist F-16s to “take out” Iran’s defences, F-22 stealth fighters for air control and F-15E squadrons adding firepower.

And this conflict could easily spin out of control, into a regional or even global war, especially if Iran responds by blocking the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 per cent of the world’s crude oil is transported.

Although Trump has said that Iran must agree to US demands in 10-15 days, his past record suggests that this is very likely a feint.

Former CIA officer John Kiriakou, citing a “friend” in the White House, stated on Friday on Julian Dorey’s YouTube channel that a decision has already been made “to attack Iran on Monday, or Tuesday,” and that almost all of Trump’s inner circle are in favour – although both Kiriakou and Dorey hoped that the information was wrong.

Yet where are the protests, internationally? As Tricontinental Institute executive director Vijay Prashad has said recently, on The Cradle, “All the warships are coming… Trump is being absolutely belligerent, and the whole world is sitting and watching this with popcorn. Nobody is condemning it openly. Nobody is saying this is outrageous. We live in a crazy situation where the United States can openly gangster, full gangster and people are like, ‘Well, it’s Trump, what can you do?’”

Well, there are things that can be done, but it means standing up to Trump. The government has taken a tiny step, in blocking the US from using British bases in attacking Iran, but that is for self-preservation. It should publicly condemn the US threats, break off all military co-operation with the US and Israel, and close all US bases on British soil.