Overnight, the United States launched strikes on three major nuclear facilities in Iran, joining Israel’s eight-day military offensive with powerful bunker-buster bombs — a bold move that could redefine the Middle East for years to come.
Will bombing Iran bring an end to the war for America — or mark its beginning?
Alex Brandon/AP
President Donald Trump said the U.S. attack “totally and completely obliterated” what remained of Iran’s nuclear program, after more than a week of pummeling by Israeli airstrikes, News.Az informs via Christian Science Monitor.
An Iranian official said that the strikes had done no irreversible damage to the country’s nuclear program, which it insists is designed for peaceful purposes.
Mr. Trump said Iran “must make peace” – underscoring his previous demand of “unconditional surrender” by Iran – and said that, “If they do not, future attacks will be far greater.”
The White House portrayed the strikes as a one-off action alongside Israel, meant to avoid drawing the U.S. into a long and costly “forever war” like Iraq and Afghanistan.
Iran immediately on Sunday launched waves of missiles at Israel in retaliation, and described the American attack as the beginning of a new, much broader escalation of conflict.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X that the American strikes “will have everlasting consequences,” and that Iran “reserves all options” to retaliate.
The U.S. attack is the latest high-stakes episode in the acrimonious, often covert and sometimes violent strategic tug-of-war that has defined relations between arch-foes Washington and Tehran since Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.
While President Trump responded positively to Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s plea for help in destroying Iran’s nuclear installations, the two appear to differ over the current war’s ultimate aim, which – for Israel – is regime change. That appears to go beyond Mr. Trump’s goal of reducing the military threat Iran poses.
“We’re in the middle of the unknown. Trump has taken a gamble, but it might not pay off,” says Vali Nasr, a professor of international affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
“He wants to just declare victory with hitting Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, the infrastructure,” says Prof. Nasr, author of the recent book Iran’s Grand Strategy: A Political History. “But if he genuinely wanted to make sure Iran had no nuclear capability, then this won’t do it,” he says, noting that troops on the ground would be required for that.
“If Iran becomes a quagmire, I think the U.S. is going to regret it, because it will also take resources and eyes off of China, Russia, and everything else,” says Prof. Nasr. “It can become far larger than Trump bargained for.”
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