Israel & Iran
Written by: Vidur Srikrishna
Summary:
On June 13, 2025, Israel launched pre-emptive strikes on Iran. Israel decided upon this action due to how close Iran seemed to be to a nuclear weapon. Iran launched a swift retaliation, sending hundreds of missiles into cities in Israel. This comes after years of attacks between Israel and Iran’s proxies in other nations in the Middle East. Iran’s military had been weakened by the long Israel-Hamas war, meaning that this was the “right time” to strike from the Israeli perspective. The Iranian president claims that Israel tried to assassinate him during a meeting as well. Later, American B-2 stealth bombers entered Iranian airspace, dropping bunker-buster bombs onto secret Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities during Operation Midnight Hammer. These include the Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan bases. Iran, in retaliation to the U.S. attack, targeted the Al Udeid air base in Qatar.
Analysis:
In the aftermath, sources do not agree on the effects of Operation Midnight Hammer. Some sources state that nothing happened; others state that the bases were destroyed. Some sources do not report new findings. Due to this, it’s uncertain if the bases were damaged. Trump mentions that there was “monumental damage,” later stating on social media that “Obliteration is an accurate term.” Iranian retaliation could come later, but as of two months later, not much more has come from Iran.
According to ForeignPolicy (third-party news source), Israel is likely to launch another attack on Iran. They mention that this would lead to another war, and this would come from any time as early as late-August to around December. They further mention that “the United States could face a full-blown war with Iran that will make Iraq look easy by comparison.” The real question is: How true is this?
It’s uncertain if this is really going to happen.
Could this happen?
Of course, but simply saying it COULD happen is not enough to say that it WILL happen. Unless a credible source verifies that Israel is going to do this, it seems like this could be slightly misleading or it even could be information made to spread fear.
While it is a possibility that Israel and Iran have a massive war by the end of the year, putting an emphasis on saying that this war will be so bloody that it will “make Iraq look easy by comparison” seems slightly exaggerated.
This is not to say it will NEVER happen, but anything COULD happen (that does not mean that it will happen!).
