In the early morning hours of June 13th, explosions were heard all over Iran. Israel had launched a large-scale attack against Iran, resulting in dozens of people killed and hundreds of people injured. Iran has now vowed retaliation, putting the Middle East at greater risk of falling into armed conflict. Let’s look at a brief history of relations between Iran and Israel and why they are so fraught today, the recent events leading up to this, and what lies ahead.
Background
Prior to the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Israel and Iran were both allied against their Arab neighbors. Iran had only been the second Muslim-majority country to recognize Israel after its independence in 1948, which occurred despite the fact that many Iranians had sympathies for Palestinian statehood over Israel. After the pro-Western Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was reinstalled as Shah of Iran in 1953, relations improved between the two countries. When the Arab states attacked Israel during the Six-Day War, Iran shipped oil to Israel, and there were links between Iranian and Israeli military projects at the time.
The Iranian Revolution saw Pahlavi’s ouster and the replacement of the secular monarchy with an Islamic theocratic government led by Ayatollah Khomeini. Khomeini was intensely anti-Israel, denouncing the country as an “enemy of Islam” and the “little Satan”. The United States, Israel’s closest ally, was deemed the “great Satan”. Under Khomeini’s rule, all ties with Israel were cut, Israeli passports were denied entry into Iran, and Iranians were prohibited from traveling to “occupied Palestine”. However, behind closed doors, relations between Israel and Iran secretly continued, with Israel selling millions of dollars worth of weapons to Iran during its war with Iraq in the 1980s.
Relations would only continue to worsen from the 1980s onward. In the 1990s and 2000s, leaders in both countries adopted aggressive postures and issued inflammatory statements against each other. Other factors that contributed to the steady deterioration of relations included Iran’s funding of Islamic groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, which have carried out attacks against Israel, and Israeli threats of military action. Both states have engaged in proxy wars throughout the Middle East, supporting opposing factions in the civil wars in Yemen and Syria, conducting cyberattacks on each other and sabotaging each other’s infrastructure. More recently, Iran’s separate proxy war with Saudi Arabia led to an informal alliance between Israel and the Arab states. In the present day, Israel regards Iran as its most significant enemy, and has regarded Iran’s nuclear program to be an existential threat, believing that Iran would use nuclear weapons to destroy Israel.
2024-present
The recent conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon saw Israel further weaken Iranian-funded terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah. Starting in 2024, both states have engaged in direct strikes against each other. April 2024 saw Iran launch airstrikes against Israel after an airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, which had been widely believed to be conducted by Israel despite its nonadmission. In the same month, Israel launched airstrikes against Iran in retaliation. July saw the assassination of the leader of Hamas in Iran by an Israeli airstrike, while October saw yet another exchange of airstrikes between the two countries.
In 2025, the Trump administration took office in the United States, intending to promote peace in the Middle East. American intelligence officials stated in March their belief that Iran was not building nuclear weapons, and President Trump announced in April that negotiations would commence between the United States and Iran regarding the latter’s nuclear program. Trump said that Iran had two months to secure a deal with the U.S.; the two-month ultimatum expired a day after the strikes occurred. Additionally, a day before the strikes occurred, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) found Iran non-compliant with its nuclear non-proliferation obligations for the first time in twenty years. In response, Iran announced a new nuclear enrichment facility.
A day before the attacks on Iran, there had been reports in the media about Israel contemplating a military operation on Iran. The U.S. was informed beforehand by Israel that the strikes would occur, and it has so far denied any participation or assistance in the strikes.
The Strikes and the Aftermath
Israel launched strikes on dozens of strikes and hundreds of targets throughout Iran in the early morning of June 13th, providing the codename, “Operation Rising Lion”. The targets primarily focused on Iran’s nuclear facilities and military infrastructure. Israel declared a state of emergency in its country, anticipating an immediate retaliation by Iran. It was later reported that the strikes had been prompted by intelligence that Iran had amassed enough uranium to develop 15 nuclear weapons within days. The attacks comprised the largest attack on Iran since
78 people were killed, and another 329 were injured after the attacks. Many important military figures were killed, including the chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, the commander of Iran’s notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and many other senior commanders. Several nuclear scientists were also killed. There are reports of civilians among the dead as well.
As of writing, Iran has not struck back substantially yet but has vowed retaliation against Israel and the United States, accusing the U.S. of having assisted Israel in the strikes. Iran announced that it would withdraw from further negotiations with the U.S. on its nuclear program. Several countries condemned the strikes and called for restraint from both Iran and Israel. Oil prices have gone up by several percentage points since the attack. President Trump criticized Iran for failing to reach an agreement with the U.S. and warned Iran against attacking American military assets in the region.
What Israel has done has clearly escalated the Middle East to the brink of war, but it is clear that both Israel and Iran have been responsible for bringing the region further and further towards armed conflict. They have carried out many attacks in the past two years that have only served to provoke one another, and this latest attack is only the latest in that trend. The U.S. risks getting dragged into this conflict, as the government continues to steadfastly support Israel. Both Iran and Israel ought to stop fighting in order to preserve the fragile stability of the Middle East. If Trump is genuine in seeking peace, it would be wise for him not to get involved at all.
These attacks show another thing, however. Iran is not as strong as it has been portrayed to be. Since 2023, Israel has been steadily winning in its proxy war against Iran, with many Iranian-backed proxy groups being weakened by Israel, and Israel demonstrating its capacity to carry out an attack anywhere in Iran. Iran has been unable to stop the might of Israeli strikes, and arguably, it is at its weakest state. This is well-deserved, as the current Iranian government is an authoritarian regime that oppresses its people and remains the top funder of several terrorist groups throughout the region. It remains to be seen whether or not Iran could put up a substantial military retaliation on Israel, but for now, the fate of the Middle East hangs in the balance.
Emil Ordonez, a rising college freshman, is the founder and editor-in-chief of Polinsights. He has been deeply passionate about politics and history since learning every U.S. President at the age of five. He was compelled to start this blog after meeting many people who were misinformed or had become apathetic about how society worked. He hopes to provide factual knowledge and insights that will encourage people, especially the young, to get more engaged in their respective communities. In his free time, he edits for Wikipedia and makes maps for elections. He aspires to work in Congress or even the White House in the future.
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