President Donald Trump stood before regional leaders during a trip to the Middle East in May and declared a new era for U.S. foreign policy in the region. It is not guided by attempts to reorganize regions or change systems of governance.
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Less than a year later, President Trump ordered a full-scale attack on Iran, borrowing language from the playbook of interventionist neoconservatives like former President George W. Bush, who he spent his political career criticizing, with the stated goal of bringing “freedom” to Iran.
Instead, multiple Iran experts told Al Jazeera that President Trump is working with Israel to wage war, which will only benefit Israel and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Iran denies developing a nuclear bomb, and even Trump administration officials have acknowledged that the U.S. government has no evidence that Iran is weaponizing its uranium enrichment program.
After the United States bombed Iran’s main enrichment facility during the 12-day war last June (an attack that President Trump said “annihilated” the country’s nuclear program), Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shifted his focus to Iran’s new threat, Iranian ballistic missiles.
In his State of the Union address earlier this week, President Trump reiterated this claim, which the Iranian government vehemently denies and which is not supported by any public evidence or testing.
Meanwhile, polls show Americans wary of global conflict after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan also largely oppose a new attack on Iran.
In a recent University of Maryland poll, only 21 percent said they supported war with Iran.
On the first day of the war, Iran fired missiles at bases and cities housing American troops and assets across the Middle East in retaliation for joint attacks by the United States and Israel, plunging the region into chaos.
President Trump acknowledged that there could be casualties for U.S. troops in the conflict. “That happens a lot in war,” he said Saturday. “But we’re not doing this for now. We’re doing this for the future, and it’s a noble calling.”
Earlier this month, the Trump administration appeared to take a step back from the brink of conflict by engaging in diplomacy with Tehran.
U.S. and Iranian negotiators have held three talks in the past week, with Tehran stressing its readiness to agree to stricter inspections of its nuclear program.
Omani mediators and Iranian officials said Thursday’s final negotiations were positive and significant progress had been made.
The June 2025 war, which Israel started without provocation, also occurred during negotiations between the United States and Iran.
In announcing the airstrike on Saturday, President Trump said it was aimed at preventing Iran from “threatening the core interests of the United States and our national security.”
But U.S. critics, including some supporters of President Trump’s “America First” movement, argue that Iran, more than 10,000 kilometers away, poses no threat to the United States.
“Is there a problem on the border with Lebanon? I’m an American. So far I haven’t had any problems on the border with Lebanon. I live in Maine,” Carlson said.
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib stressed Saturday that the American people do not want war with Iran.
“President Trump is acting on the violent fantasies of America’s political elites and Israel’s apartheid government, ignoring the vast majority of Americans who loudly say ‘no more wars,'” Tlaib said in a statement.
