The war which the United States-Israel attack on Iran triggered on February 28 is still on, but Iran has definitely won it by neither imploding nor surrendering and still battling on effectively. This is mainly because Iran had learned a vital lesson regarding national security soon after its April 1979 theocratic revolution.Most of its high value military assets – the F14 Tomcats, M60 tanks and AH-1 Cobra helicopters which its previous pro-US regime had acquired – were destroyed in Iraq’s pre-emptive strike in September 1980 when the “eight-year war” between them commenced. Those military assets which survived could not be used for much longer because US sanctions made spare parts unavailable. Iran, therefore, decided to commence building its military assets domestically.Iran’s first drone, Mohajer-1, debuted in 1985. In the next ten years, it manufactured a dozen more unmanned aerial vehicles. Some of their components were initially sourced from Germany’s Siemens Corporation. In 1993, it began producing its Karrar tank, based on the Soviet T-72 design. In the early 2010s, it began producing an upgraded version with some features of the British Challenger 2 and Soviet T-90MS tanks.In the early 2000s, Iran began producing ballistic missiles with North Korean assistance. The approximate cost of each was only $250,000, a fifth of that of US Patriot and Arrow missiles. From 2015 onwards, Iran began producing supersonic missiles, some of which had Mach 12-14 capability.In the 2020s, it transited from liquid-fuelled to solid-propellant missiles with China’s assistance. Its Kheibar Shekan missile has a 1,500-kilometre range and the Qassem Bashir and Zuljanah missiles have a 6,000-kilometre range. Its numerous naval speedboats are fitted with drones and capable of laying naval mines.By 2010, Iran was exporting some of its drones and missiles. Reputed security analysts have estimated that presently Iran has approximately 80,000 drones and 4,000 ballistic/supersonic missiles. To safeguard these vital strategic assets, the country built secure storages deep inside its granitic mountain ranges.It is because of this that Iran, despite the great losses it suffered in the US/Israeli attacks, including the killing of its revered spiritual leader and many military and scientific stalwarts, scientific and educational institutions and bridges and infrastructure, it has neither imploded nor capitulated. Instead, it could retaliate strongly and skilfully.Also read: ‘Destruction Is Not the Same as Political Success’: US Bombing of Iran Shows Little Evidence of Endgame StrategyInitially, it closed the Strait of Hormuz and permitted only those ships that paid a toll in Chinese Yuan to transit it. Thereafter it fired drones and conventional missiles at US/Israeli military sites, impelling them to expend their high cost Patriot and Arrow missile interceptors It then fired waves of its drones and hypersonic missiles – 4,400 and 1,300 of them over the next six weeks – at US and Israeli strategic assets. Satellite images have revealed severe damages to most of the assets it targeted.US losses were an E-3 AWACS aircraft, an MQ-4C Triton surveillance drone, two-dozen MQ-9 Reaper drones and severe damages to its Air Force and naval bases in Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain as well as to refineries in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.Israel’s losses were 18 UAVs, 2 Hermes drones and approximately 500 land armour assets, including Merkava tanks, armoured vehicles and bulldozers, and damage to its Nevatim Air and Haifa Naval bases, Dimona nuclear research centre, Eilat and Ashdod ports, Ben Gurion airport, oil refinery, electricity generation and desalination plants.As Israel’s entire territory is only 22,000 sq km, every part of it is within a five- minute range of Iran’s hypersonic missiles. So also are all US strategic assets in Gulf countries.Iran’s geographic size, intrepid, deeply patriotic people (1.65 million sq km and 93 million population) and extensive granitic mountain ranges have been its valuable strategic assets in this mega confrontation with the US and Israel. So also have been the dedicated militias it has trained and equipped in Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.Houthi supporters walk in front of posters of some top Iranian scientists who have been killed in Israeli strikes, in Sanaa, Yemen, July 13, 2026. Photo: AP/Osamah AbdulrahmanIran’s asymmetric war is not the first to be successfully waged. The Viet Cong waged it in Vietnam, the mujahadeen and the Taliban waged it in Afghanistan. But that which Iran has waged against the ultra-hi-tech US/Israel armed forces is the crown jewel of asymmetric wars.As long ago as 2004, John Pilger wrote in ‘The Unmentionable Source of Terrorism’ that the “Zionist state is the cause of more regional wars than all Muslim states combined. Yet the Israeli army, a terrorist organisation, is protected and rewarded by Western powers”.In June 2025, the UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine, Francesca Albanese averred, “My generation was taught Nazism was the greatest evil; and it was; and colonial crimes should’ve not been omitted. Today, Israel starving millions and shooting children for sport, is the new abyss of cruelty.”That despite all this, India’s Prime Minister visited and signed a ‘Special Strategic Partnership’ with Israel, on the eve of its treacherous attack on Iran, is most unfortunate. It is a grave betrayal of BRICS objectives and solidarity, as Iran is an important member of this grouping and India is its present chair. It is also a betrayal of India’s vital long-term interests, as Iran is a close and friendly neighbour and was one of its oil suppliers until 2018.That Pakistan, and not India, is the peace mediator in this ongoing conflict is a good indicator of the sad state of India’s diplomacy. Its prime focus appears to be on scheduling the prime minister’s visits, of which there have been 138 to 82 countries between June 2014 and July 2026, apart from securing ‘highest national honour’ awards from as many of them as possible for our revered “Vishwaguru”.Meanwhile Iran, with its well-honed asymmetric warfare strategy, has solidified its national unity and security, established firm control of the Hormuz Strait and splintered the Western and even stronger US-Israel alliance.Alan Nazareth is a former Ambassador of India to Egypt and Mexico and author of Ringside Seat to History and Historical Perspectives.