America’s new war
IT is a war that Israel had been planning for years. After a nod from the Trump administration, the Zionist state last Friday unleashed multiple strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and military installations.
With Iran fiercely responding to the unwarranted aggression, the conflict has escalated into a full-blown war between the two countries, which could spread to the entire region and beyond. The possibility of the US getting involved directly to help Israel has made the situation extremely volatile.
President Donald Trump’s statement on social media that “everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran” leaves little doubt of America’s direct participation in the war. A president who claims to be anti-war is now driving America into yet another catastrophic military adventure, plunging the world into further chaos. Trump has long made his position clear: he will not involve America in other countries’ wars. But America is now entering a conflict whose outcome it cannot determine.
According to some media reports, pressed by Israeli leaders Washington might decide to supply the Zionist state with the 13,600-kilogram ‘bunker-busting’ bombs. These may help Israel destroy the deep underground Iranian nuclear facilities but will not produce the desired objective of forcing Iran to surrender. To the contrary, such a move would imperil any remaining chance of a negotiated nuclear deal with Iran that the US president insists he is still interested in pursuing. “I think Iran basically is at the negotiating table, they want to make a deal,” Trump said in a post on social media on Monday.
As academic and former State Department member Vali Nasr said it is ‘war diplomacy’. There is no indication that Iran will accept any deal in the shadow of war. In fact, it was Israel’s attack that scuttled the ongoing nuclear negotiations between Iran and the Trump administration. The two delegations were supposed to meet in Oman for the next round of talks; the previous rounds are believed to have made some progress.
But Israel’s attack on Iran just days before the scheduled meeting derailed the negotiations. It had been the first high-level engagement between the US and Iran since 2018. That year, Donald Trump, during his first presidency, had opted to withdraw his country from the 2015 nuclear agreement, promising to get a “better deal”. While the Iranian delegation was headed by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, America was being represented by Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff. The fact that the two sides had agreed to meet again ostensibly demonstrated serious intent on both sides.
But Israel was never in favour of a negotiated nuclear deal and had long been pressing the US for military action to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities which had been operating under the strict eye of the IAEA, the international nuclear watchdog. It was also the reason Israel opposed the 2015 agreement, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The accord was signed by Iran and six world powers, including the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.
The annulment of the accord by the first Trump presidency was a serious setback to any peaceful solution to the complicated problem. Iran has repeatedly denied plans to acquire a nuclear weapon. It was a well-calculated move by Israel to attack Iran at a time when the Islamic Republic appeared to have weakened after the loss of its allies in Lebanon and Syria. Although Washington has distanced itself from Israel’s military action, the secretary of state conceded that the administration had prior knowledge of the attack.
The US is now entering a conflict whose outcome it cannot determine.
Western countries have endorsed the Israeli aggression as preventive action to end Iran’s nuclear weapons programme. Not surprisingly, an otherwise fractious Western alliance is united behind Israel’s illegal war. In a joint statement, the G7 leaders, who just met in Canada, reiterated their support “for the security of Israel” and described Iran as “the principal source of regional instability and terror”. This exposes the West’s hypocrisy and double standards. These countries are not only supporting Israel’s naked aggression against Iran, they are also condoning the Zionist state’s genocidal war in Gaza.
The Trump administration has now been drawn into the war. With American backing, Israel has expanded its attacks to the civilian population, leaving hundreds of Iranians dead. According to some reports, Israel plans to kill Iran’s supreme leader. The two countries have been locked in conflict for the past several decades but had not had a full-fledged war until now.
It is certainly the fiercest confrontation in the history of Israel-Iran conflict. Over the last few days of war, Iran has demonstrated its military prowess by firing hundreds of ballistic missiles deep inside Israel causing damage to infrastructure there as well as killing civilians. Israel has not seen such devastation at home in any war it has fought in the past. Israel’s air and cyber strikes may have crippled some of Iran’s military capacity but the latter country can still fight a prolonged war. Despite its massive military superiority, Israel still has not been able to achieve its main objective of knocking out Iran’s nuclear development programme.
Meanwhile, Israel’s strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities have sparked concerns about the risk of nuclear contamination. IAEA head Rafael Grossi has warned of possible radiological and chemical contamination from damaged nuclear facilities in Iran.
The war will change the political map of the Middle East but not in the way the US wants. It’s a lesson that America has failed to draw from its previous wars in the Middle East. Direct American involvement would mean boots on the ground that could enflame the entire region. Tehran has already warned against US participation in the conflict and has threatened to target American interests in the region. It’s the beginning of an unending war with far-reaching implications for global security.
The writer is an author and journalist.
X: @hidhussain
Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2025