The United States and Israel began joint strikes against Iran over the weekend, after nearly a year of negotiations between the US and Iran. In a speech to the nation on Saturday, President Trump called the strikes a “major combat operation” and said the objective was to “defend the American people by eliminating the immanent threats of the Iranian regime.” This comes after Trump promised help to Iranian protesters in January, saying “Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!!”
After the initial strikes, Israel conducted military action killing Iran’s supreme leader and several others, according to Reuters. President Trump urged regime change, telling the Iranian people, “When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take.”
The action against Iran comes as negotiations between the US and Iran fizzled out, despite signs of a breakthrough. Last week, Oman mediated talks in Geneva and said that the two sides had come to “unprecedented progress” in the negotiations. However, on Friday, President Trump said that he was “not happy” with Iran “because they’re not willing to give us what we have to have.”
Trump has consistently said that he does not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon — a demand he repeated at the State of the Union. Iran, though, “insists it has the right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes and denies seeking a nuclear weapon,” according to PBS. Earlier last month, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said that, “Iran’s insistence on enrichment is not merely technical or economic (…) it is rooted in a desire for independence and dignity.”
An Old Conflict
US-Iranian conflict, however, is not new. David Wurmser, Senior Analyst for Middle East Affairs at the Center for Security Policy, told Drew Mariani in 2024 that the conflict between Iran and the US can be traced back to 1979 when Iran took over the US Embassy (famously depicted in the 2012 film, Argo) and to 1983 when Iran bombed the US Embassy in Beirut. “They have been relentless in their war against the United States all the way through” he told Drew.
Proximate Escalations
Prior to these attacks, the US and Iran have been engaged in conflict the past few years. During the end of the Biden Administration, the US and Israel conducted strikes against the Iranian backed Houthi rebels in Yemen after the Houthis struck commercial shipping vessels.
And last year, the US and Israel struck Iran’s nuclear program in June at the end of Israel’s 12 day war with Iran.
Pope Leo
During his angelus on Sunday, the Holy Father called for “halting the spiral of violence before it becomes an unbridgeable chasm.”