He went big. On Saturday morning, US and Israeli forces unleashed Operation Epic Fury, what US President Donald Trump called “a massive and ongoing” campaign against Iran. He called on the Iranian people to overthrow the regime once the fighting is done. Iran responded quickly by attacking Israel and US bases in the region. Below, our experts assess the unfolding war and where it goes from here.
Trump warned countries against reneging on their deals with the US, and even if he can’t legally reimpose his threatened 25% punitive tariff on India if it defiantly reverses its trend of reducing Russian oil imports, he might still resume the US’ containment of it through Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The goal is to obtain proxy control over Iran’s enormous oil and gas reserves so that they can be weaponized as leverage against China for coercing it into a lopsided trade deal that would derail its superpower rise and therefore restore US-led unipolarity.
For decades, Iran has targeted and killed Americans and US allies. Its proxies took hostages. It attacked ships in the Gulf of Oman. Now, America is responding.
US President Donald Trump’s announcement that the US had begun major combat operations against Iran yesterday was different from his comments in the past about Tehran.