THE 2026 IRAN WAR AND HOW IT’S AFFECTED THE WORLD
Note: this war is changing daily so this information could be outdated or miss certain pieces of information.
Introduction
My name is Zach Barnes I am in 2nd year in temple Carrig school greystones. I have chosen this topic because I’ve always been interested in global conflicts especially ones involving many countries so when I saw that we were doing geography in the news as our topic I already new I was going to do this topic
Why did this war start?
The 2026 Iran war started due to many reasons like the US having strategic military objectives in Iran like making sure that Iran doesn’t and will not obtain a nuclear weapon, disrupting Iran backed military groups in the Middle East and destroying Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal. Another reason was because of the breakdown of nuclear negotiations, the support of the very anti western (Western European and American) government and due to a 12 day conflict between Iran and Israel in mid 2025.
How did this war start?
The 2026 Iran War started on the 28th of February after the United States of America and Israel launched an attack on Iran where they targeted their missile infrastructure, military sites and on their capital, Tehran targeting their supreme leader, Ali Hosseini Khamenei but strikes where also sent all across the country like in major cities like Tabriz, Urmia, Minab, Isfahan and many many more sadly killing over 170 people and injuring over 747 people
Who is involved in this conflict?
Currently there are many countries involved on both sides, mostly being on the American side which includes the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq and Jordan with allies like Australia, the United Kingdom, Ukraine and most significantly Israel who helped the US with the original strikes on Iran.
How did each of these nations get involved in this war?
The UAE; On the 28th of February Iran launched many ballistic at US military bases in Abu Dhabi, including the Al Dhafra Air Base and the Al Minhad Air Base. The day after these attacks (on march 1st) the UAE officially severed ties with Iran and closed in embassy in Tehran (Iran’s capital) and withdrew their ambassador.
Saudi Arabia; similar to the UAE Saudi Arabia got involved in this conflict because of Iranian missile strikes on the 28th of February where Iran mainly targeting Riyadh (their capital) and their eastern provinces specifically aiming at the Prince Sultan Air Base and the Riyadh airport, initially Saudi Arabia tried to declare neutrality but after continued strikes on the 21st of march Saudi Arabia officially expelled Irans ambassadors.
Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait; Once again extremely similarly to the UAE and Saudi Arabia, on the 28th of February Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait all got involved due to Iranian missile strikes on their territories.
The UK and Cyprus; After a drone struck a British military base on Cyprus the UK deployed further military assets to Cyprus including the HMS Dragon, as the conflict spread through the region the UK announced efforts to evacuate all 300,000 of their citizens in the region, but reports say it wasn’t actually Iran who sent the drone but it was actually Hezbollah who sent the drone to the British military base.
Jordan; Jordan got involved in the conflict after intercepting multiple Iranian missiles and drones heading for Jordan, this eventually led to Jordan activating a Defense treaty with UK aircraft assisting in the interception of Iranian missiles and drones.
Other nations; Most of the other countries that are involved have very minor roles or are hardly involved at all like Iraq.
While on Iran’s side it is mostly terrorist organisation like Hezbollah (in Lebanon) the Houthi movement (in Yemen) and the PMF (Popular Mobilisation Forces) in Iraq with Iran also getting support from allies like Russia.
What are these terrorist organisations?
Hezbollah; Hezbollah is a terrorist organisation situated in the shiite Lebanon (a Shiite is a branch of Islam also known as a Shia) which are mainly in southern Lebanon, Lebanon’s capital (Beirut) and the eastern Bekaa Valley region (near the Lebanon-Syria border)
Houthi movement; The Houthi movement also known as Ansar Allah(Partisans of God) are a political and religious group that practically control the Shia majority areas of Yemen. They have declared themselves to be apart of the Iranian led ‘Axis of resistance’ against Israel, the US and other western countries like the UK and France
The PMF; The PMF (or the popular mobilisation forces) is an Iraqi state security service that Iran has infiltrated, Iran has used this to gain significant influence in Iraq. They aren’t exactly a terrorist organisation but they share some similar ideals to some organisations that Iran influences like being Shia, anti Sunni (the main branch of Islam seen in countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan) anti-western and anti-LGBT. With a size of between 60 and 230 thousand
What are the environmental impacts of this conflict?
This war has many impacts on the environment like over 5 million tonnes of CO2 being emitted after only 14 days, this is the equivalent of the yearly emissions of roughly 1 million citizens!
Another environmental impact of this war is oil spilling due to Iranian missiles striking down multiple ships in the strait of Hormuz making oil spilling very frequent. This causes servers damage to marine life in the area.
One final environmental impact of this war is that the war is damaging forests and wetlands especially in the Zagros mountain range in western Iran. This can also severely hurt many species in the area like the persian leapord
What are the social impacts of this war?
Casualties: during this war over 1,900 people have been killed so far along with nearly 20,000 injuries just in Iran. This has a huge social affect as 1,900 people is around twice the number of students in our school, Temple Carrig.
Internet blackout; An internet blackout was issued by the Iranian government which has practically shut down almost all internet access to the entire country, this has stopped the flow of information about the war or other controversial topics across Iran.
Internal displacements: during this war hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced across Iran. The Iranian government ordered the evacuation of Iran’s capital (Tehran) but they have forbidden it in major cities like Bushehr and Bandar Abbas
What are the economic impacts of this war?
One major economic impact of the 2026 Iran war is that GDP growth (gross domestic product, which is the total value of goods and services produced in a country, usually measured in the US dollar) was meant to grow by 2.4% in 2026 in the Middle East (excluding Iran) but now is only going to grow by 1.8% being a decrease of around 150 Billion dollars! Which is similar to the GDP of Kenya or Slovakia.
Oil prices have skyrocketed increasing by over €30 per barrel since late February, this is mainly driven by the closure of the strait of Hormuz. This has led mainly countries to implement policy responses including free public transport in Australia, fuel rationing in Bangladesh, Thailand using fuel subsidies and the US lessening sanctions on Russian oil.
Another economic impact of this war is that the Iranian Rial has decreased in value by over 800% since the start of this war which basically has led to its collapse with one euro being worth over 1,500,000 Iranian Rials, this has led to food inflation growing by 105%, protests leading to and estimated 2,500 deaths and 18,500 arrests and the central bank was forces to issue a new 10 million rial note.
This war also costs the US and their allies around 1 billion dollars a day purely in military and humanitarian expenses meaning that so far the US and allies have spent around 50 billion dollars just in this conflict alone
Impacts on Ireland:
Since the start of this war petrol prices have reached €1.90 per litre and diesel increasing to €2.10 with petrol increasing by around 20c and diesel by 40c per litre. Home heating has also sky rocketed in price with 500 litres of heating oil almost doubling. Electricity has also greatly increased in price due to around half of Ireland electricity generating from gas..
There has also been protests due to the increase in prices of oil with convoys of vehicles blocking major routes like the M50, M7 bypasses in limerick and port Laois and the Galway docks, people are demanding a fuel price gap and the suspension of the Carbon Tax. These protests have led to severe traffic leasing to delayed emergency services in areas severely affected by these protests.
Inflation has also risen as it was estimated that inflation would grow by 2.1% but now that’s grown by 50% now being 3.2% this year.
Ireland could also loose up to €450 million in tourism revenue from the Middle East.
How does this affect humans globally and locally
this greatly affects humans globally and locally, globally people are not able to travel from Europe to Asia easily as due to the war airspace’s have been restricted or even shut down in major airports like in Doha or Dubai and locally this war has caused mass starvation especially in Iran where the situation is worst.
How is this linked to another event?
the 2026 Iran war is linked to 2 other events they are rising global tensions and the 2025-2026 Iran protests.
the Iran war was a huge escalation in global tensions as it was the first major war the us has been involved in since Afghanistan which is the biggest escalation in world tensions in a good 4 years.
the war in Iran is also linked to the 2025-2026 Iranian protests which saw the inflation of the Iranian rial and the killing of thousands, injury of tens of thousands and the arrests of up to 26,000 mostly peaceful protestors which was a partial reason why this war started.
What’s currently happening in the war?
currently the US and Iran have signed a 2 week ceasefire after trump spoke to Pakistan’s leader, Israel also has agreed to this ceasefire but they are still sending missiles at Iranian territory. Iran has also released a peace plan stating that the only way that Iran will accept a ceasefire is if these demands are met. These demands are;
The lifting of all primary and secondary sanctions on Iran.
Continued Iranian control over the strait of Hormuz.
US military withdrawal from the Middle East.
An end to attacks on Iran and its allies.
The release of frozen Iranian assets.
A UN security council resolution making any deal binding.
My personal opinion.
In my opinion I see both sides of this war, on americas side Iran getting nuclear weapons is a great threat to America and their allies safety and I also believe that the Iranian government is not good and needs a change especially with how they treat peaceful protester (killing and arresting in the mass). But on the other side I see that the US and Israel have gone way to far killing thousands and putting millions into risk of starvation.
I believe this conflicted should have been resolved early on and I believe that both sides should sue for a permanent peace as this war is too expensive and deadly to keep happening even with the current truce.
Thank you for listening to my Geography CBA and I really hope you enjoyed it and learnt something new from this project.
Bibliography
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/02/uk-airbase-raf-akrotiri-cyprus-suspected-drone-strike
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/21/middle-east-iran-conflict-environment-climate
Https://ceobs.org/iran-war-environmental-risk-overview-as-of-27th-march/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67614911
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounders/what-hezbollah
https://www.britannica.com/event/2026-Iran-war
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/08/iran-10-point-plan-ceasefire-donald-trump-us