A coordinated attack by the U.S. And Israel on Iran on Saturday, February 28, 2026, has sparked conflict in the Middle East, including the reported death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The escalating tensions prompted retaliatory strikes from Iran targeting Israel and Arab nations in the Persian Gulf, where U.S. Military assets are located, with reports indicating damage to civilian infrastructure as well. The situation is being closely watched by global markets as it threatens regional stability and potential disruptions to energy supplies.
“Regarding how the attack is being conducted, a war hasn’t been declared. Nevertheless, objects considered to be state administration and security facilities are being bombed under a pretext that isn’t very credible,” said former Slovak Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar (83) in an interview with TVV. “It’s quite difficult to accept that just a few days ago, the United States conducted negotiations with an Iranian delegation. They didn’t reach an agreement, but they negotiated. And the result of this operation is that a large portion of those who were in that delegation were killed. The purpose of this reaction was actually to potentially create some new leadership, new people, and for Iran to go down a different path.”
The conflict has as well impacted Dubai.
Source: TASR/AP
“A conflict is being founded that is not in accordance with international law. So far, two major allies of Iran – Russia and China – remain silent. The question is how long they will be satisfied with that. There’s the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran is mining, meaning there will be no oil trade. Prices will go up, and there will be a shortage of oil on the markets,” he predicted. The Strait of Hormuz is a critical chokepoint for global oil shipments, and any disruption could significantly impact energy prices.
He also anticipates broader political repercussions. “I don’t recognize how long it will last, but to expect that this action will achieve a change in policy is not realistic. It’s a shame that Trump was talked into this. It’s open and the conflict could escalate into something bigger and could remain contained as a regional one,” Mečiar added.
Vladimír Mečiar was born on July 26, 1942, in Zvolen. While working as a smelter at ZŤS Dubnica nad Váhom, he studied law at Comenius University in Bratislava on a part-time basis. After graduating, he worked as a company lawyer at Skloobale Nemšová from 1974 to 1990.
Mečiar became politically involved in the first half of the 1960s, holding various positions in the Czechoslovak Youth Federation (ČSM). During the normalization period, he was removed from positions in the youth movement and excluded from the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) in 1970 due to his stance on the occupation of Czechoslovakia.
He re-entered political life after 1989 as part of the Public Against Violence (VPN) movement, for which he gained his first parliamentary mandate in 1990. Within this political subject, he founded a platform in March 1991, which grew into the establishment of a new party, the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS), the following month. He was the chairman of the party from its founding in 1991 for 21 years until April 26, 2012, when he announced his departure from the leadership of the party. In June 2003, a party congress decided to change the name to the People’s Party – HZDS (ĽS-HZDS).
In the first half of 1990, he held the positions of Minister of the Interior and Minister of the Environment in the Slovak government. After parliamentary elections in June 1990, he became Prime Minister for the first time and served in this function until April 1991. After further elections to the Slovak National Council (SNR) in June 1992, he again became Prime Minister, holding the office until March 1994, when parliament expressed no confidence in him. During this period of government, together with Czech Prime Minister Václav Klaus, he held a series of negotiations that led to the dissolution of the common state of the Czechs and Slovaks.
From October 1992 to March 1993 and again from March 1998 to October 1998, he was entrusted with some powers of the President of the SR as Prime Minister. Vladimír Mečiar sat in the prime ministerial chair for the third time after winning parliamentary elections in December 1994 and served in the function until October 1998. It was during this period that the President’s son, Michal Kováč Jr., was kidnapped (1995), Róbert Remiáš was killed (1996), and a referendum failed in 1997.
It was precisely Vladimír Mečiar and his government that influenced the decision of the European Commission, which on July 16, 1997, at a meeting in Strasbourg, did not recommend starting negotiations on EU enlargement in the first wave with Slovakia, as the country did not meet the political criteria.
His speech on September 30, 1998, on Slovak Television became memorable, when, after losing parliamentary elections, he announced his departure from the political scene. At the end of the speech, with a song on his lips, “With God I go from you, I haven’t harmed any of you!”, he waved goodbye to his supporters and voters across the television screen.
In May 1999, he unsuccessfully ran in the first direct presidential elections, won by Rudolf Schuster. Vladimír Mečiar also ran for the office of head of state a second time – in the presidential elections in 2004. Although he won the first round of elections with 32.7 percent of the vote, he received 40.1 percent of the vote in the second round and finished second to Ivan Gašparovič (59.9 percent).
In the June parliamentary elections in 2010, ĽS-HZDS did not enter the National Council of the Slovak Republic. The movement received only 4.32 percent of the votes of voters and had to leave parliament after twenty years. After further unsuccessful parliamentary elections, which took place in March 2012, in which ĽS-HZDS received only 0.93 percent of the votes of voters, Mečiar announced his departure from the leadership of ĽS-HZDS on April 26, 2012.
The founder and former long-term chairman of HZDS, Vladimír Mečiar, resigned his membership in the party on December 12, 2013. The party did not elect a new chairman and, at an extraordinary congress in Žilina on January 11, 2014, 161 out of 165 delegates decided to dissolve the party. He attempted to return to politics in November 2019, when members of the Slovak League gathered in Trenčín on November 9 to elect Vladimír Mečiar as chairman of the party and leader of the candidate list.
However, at the end of November 2019, Mečiar changed his mind and decided not to run in the parliamentary elections. The Slovak League received only 809 valid votes, or 0.02 percent of the votes of voters, in the elections held on February 29, 2020.
