The United States and Israel have chosen war with Iran for the second time in just eight months, launching sweeping strikes aimed at toppling the regime. The assault once again comes amid negotiations between Washington and Tehran, raising serious questions of both U.S. sincerity in its diplomatic efforts abroad and the supposed “peace” mandate President Donald Trump has falsely claimed to support.
Trump’s stated reasoning for attacking Iran continues to fluctuate between Iran’s nuclear program, missile program, support for proxies abroad, and repression at home. That dynamic is concerning given the history of U.S. mission creep and, frankly, the ongoing desires of official Washington to cede increasing levels of power to the executive branch and its clear disdain for international law.
Given Oman’s foreign minister, Badr al-Busaidi, shared a major breakthrough in the talks between Washington and Tehran just hours before the strikes makes Trump’s decision all the more damning. In this regard, Iranian and U.S. officials supposedly reached a framework in nuclear negotiations that could have led to a profoundly better deal than former President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran in 2015. Per al-Busaidi, the framework effectively cut off any chance of an already non-existent Iranian nuclear weapon—exactly what Trump has loudly and repeatedly demanded from talks.
Ultimately, the decision to go to war with Iran was reportedly made weeks or months ago, in close coordination with Israel and in the name of advancing Israeli interests—not U.S. ones. Trump has chosen maximalism at the expense of Middle East stability and U.S. lives, with tens of thousands of troops and citizens caught in the crossfire.
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