Washington DC [US], February 28 : Former Pentagon official Michael Rubin on Saturday said that the "Iranian regime is in a lot of trouble," as the United States and Israel will try to "decapitate the regime" by taking out its defence capabilities, including the ballistic missile launchers.
However, Rubin reiterated the US President Donald Trump's stance that "there will not be boots on the ground."
"My first reaction is that the Iranian regime is in a lot of trouble... While the US and Israel are going to try to take out the ballistic missile launchers and decapitate the regime, the Iranian regime's goal is simply to survive and then claim victory, like what we saw with Hamas," Rubin told ANI in an exclusive interview.
"Donald Trump has said there will not be boots on the ground. There will not be US troops inserted. I can only think of two parallels," he added.
Rubin drew parallels between Imperial Japan during world war 2, and in Kosovo.
"Number one was what happened with Imperial Japan, when the US didn't insert military troops into Japan until after massive bombing, and the emperor surrendered. The second issue would be Kosovo... Iran is about 20 times the size of Kosovo. So it's not clear what worked in Kosovo is going to work in Iran," Rubin said.
Talking about the timing of the attacks on Iranian soil, Rubin said that such actions are "determined by the air defences of Iran."
"When we look at June 2025, the timing of that attack was determined by Iran reconstituting its anti-aircraft missile batteries that we saw were hit in April of 2024 and October of 2024. There have been recent news reports that China and perhaps Russia have been supplying Iran with advanced weaponry, including perhaps even carrier-killer missiles," he said.
"Such an act by Russia and China, could have "accelerated the conflict rather than deterred it. However, there is space of diplomacy, seeing how Iran has lost over USD 2 trillion due to sanctions, and lost opportunities for development and investment, which could push the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, to give up the country's nuclear program. The Supreme Leader of Iran would be extraordinarily hard-pressed to simply give up his nuclear program because not only ordinary Iranian people, whom he doesn't care much about, but even his own Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps would then ask, what have we sacrificed for over decades?" he asked.
Earlier, Iran's Defence Minister Amir Nasirzadeh and Revolutionary Guards commander Mohammed Pakpour were killed in an Israeli strike, according to sources familiar with Israel's military operations, and another regional source, Reuters reported.
Iran's Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi alleged that the Israeli strike on Iranian primary school for girls murdered dozens. Araghchi vowed to answer the strikes.