WASHINGTON (Dispatches) -- Time magazine’s latest cover featuring Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has sparked criticism online, with users accusing the publication of drumming up support for the idea of regime change in Iran following Israel’s surprise attack on the country last week. 
The cover features a half-torn poster of Ayatollah Khamenei with the headline: “The New Middle East” featured prominently on the page. 
“Western press is setting the stage for the aggression against Iran,” said one user. “What they call ‘The New Middle East’ is fragmented, failed states whose resources and people they think they are entitled to exploit.”
Another user said: “It hasn’t even been a week and there’s already a new Middle East?! How? Am I missing a ceasefire, a regime collapse, or a revolution?”
Many social media users also drew parallels between Time’s image and the March 2003 issue of the magazine, which was published just weeks before the U.S. invasion of Iraq. 
Claudiopoi, another user, summed up Time’s shenanigans: 
A clear propaganda piece:
1. Tearing out the page as though Iran’s time has come (it hasn’t)
2. Drumming up “Iran’s threat” (unfounded)
3. Painting Israhell as the hero in “Israel’s Gamble” (LIE)
4. Justifying American intervention so it’s justified (it’s not)
FOR SHAME!
In addition to the title “Life after Saddam Hussein”, the March 2003 issue also promoted an article about “[President George W] Bush’s high-risk plan to occupy Iraq and remake the Middle East”.
“We’re not exaggerating when we say it’s the same playbook,” one user wrote on X.
Israel launched its attacks last week claiming that Iran was on the verge of building nuclear weapons.
But the Islamic Republic has repeatedly denied seeking nuclear weapons, a position supported by the most recent assessments from the UN nuclear agency, the IAEA, and the U.S. intelligence community.
The attacks have since escalated into an exchange of rockets between Tel Aviv and Tehran. 
Israel’s attacks have killed several top military generals and nuclear scientists and targeted Iranian nuclear facilities, but it has also struck residential buildings, hospitals, civilian infrastructure and the Iranian state television headquarters, killing hundreds of civilians in what is being viewed by many as an operation geared towards regime change.