As the Trump Administration pushes forward with a new Middle East strategy that shifts regional security responsibilities to its allies in the region, expect more Israeli strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities and military targets. The current destruction of Iranian nuclear and military sites and leadership in attacks this Friday is just the beginning. The Trump Administration has sent clear signals that it has been extremely dissatisfied with the progress of Iran towards hammering out a nuclear deal. President Trump, in a memorandum this past February, stated his intentions on placing maximum pressure on Iran, including blocking all of Iran’s oil exports and maximizing sanctions to stop Iran’s ability to enrich weapons-grade uranium and deny them the capability of obtaining intercontinental ballistic missiles. President Trump has stated he first and foremost wants to engage diplomatically with Iran to make a deal; but in his own words: if Iran refuses to make a deal, ‘that’s ok too’.
President Trump’s patience seems to have come to an end, as he told CNN reporters this Friday, 13 June, 2025. ‘Iran should have listened to me when I said — you know, I gave them, I don’t know if you know but I gave them a 60-day warning and today is day 61,’ the President said at the White House shortly following the attacks. He went on to praise the attacks as ‘very successful’ and urged Iran to make a deal. President Trump has been clear that he was going to approach Iran from a position of strength with his maximum pressure plan, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been willing to compromise. On the contrary, President Trump has offered many concessions to the Iranian leadership, including allowing the enrichment of uranium up to 3.67 per cent for civilian usage. This compliance, according to the Trump Administration, would result in the immediate termination of sanctions and the unfreezing of Iranian financial assets. Tehran’s response, however, has been that it won’t negotiate with the United States while it maintains its maximum pressure policy.
‘Iran should have listened to me when I said — you know, I gave them, I don’t know if you know but I gave them a 60-day warning and today is day 61’
President Trump made a final sincere effort this past March when he wrote a personal letter to Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei, proposing a deal in exchange for Iran curbing its enrichment, arming proxies, and missile development, and ultimately warning that military action could take place if rejected again. This letter resulted in informal talks taking place in Oman between U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Iran’s Abbas Araghchi. Through these talks, the US proposed a new deal that might be more appealing to Iran, which included the offer to allow enrichment for civilian usage and the immediate termination of sanctions once it had been verified that Iran wasn’t enriching weapons-grade uranium. This deal was once again rejected, with Supreme Leader Khamenei stating that Iran would never stop or limit its capacity to enrich uranium to whatever capacity they see fit.
Under these circumstances, it should come as no surprise that the attack proceeded. President Trump has consistently warned Tehran that there would be consequences if it continued to reject every deal offered. The Trump administration has stated that it played no role in the recent attacks against Iran, but has also affirmed its support for Israel and its unilateral decision to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities and military targets this past Friday. In this situation, President Trump likely won’t need to order any military action himself and may instead continue urging Iran to return to the negotiating table while Israel maintains its strikes in the coming days. Unless the situation changes rapidly, Israel has signaled its intention to continue targeting Iranian military and nuclear sites over the next week.
These attacks fall perfectly in line with President Trump’s new strategy in the Middle East, pursuing peace through strength by utilizing and increasing cooperation with Israel and the Gulf states. President Trump has worked with Oman to help offer Iran the carrot; Iran having repeatedly rejected that carrot, Israel delivers the stick. President Trump has made it clear that he expects other states in the region to increase their share of the burden in providing regional security as he plans to shrink the U.S. military presence in the area. While the majority of the Gulf States, with the sole exception of Bahrain, have openly condemned the attacks by Israel on Iran, it is highly likely that the US will continue to support Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear targets as long as Iran continues to reject every offer the US makes.
‘President Trump has worked with Oman to help offer Iran the carrot; Iran having repeatedly rejected that carrot, Israel delivers the stick’
Iran has already begun responding by launching drone attacks into Israel. As of this writing, no American installations have been hit. Iran has so far launched around 100 drones and several dozen missiles toward Israel, with Israeli air defenses successfully intercepting a large portion of the assault. However, Iran has managed to land several strikes in Tel Aviv, reportedly killing at least one person at the time of this article’s writing.
While Tehran has vowed revenge, many analysts now believe that Iran’s options for further retaliation are severely limited. Previous Israeli strikes destroyed much of Iran’s rocket fuel infrastructure. Following this latest barrage, experts are questioning how many missiles Iran has left to fire. The most recent Israeli attacks reportedly killed Iran’s top three commanders: Major General Hossein Salami (former head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps), Major General Mohammad Bagheri (former Chief of Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces), and Amir Ali Hajizadeh (former Commander of the IRGC’s Aerospace Force). This loss of senior leadership is a devastating blow to Iran’s military, and its effects on the country’s bureaucracy and decision-making capabilities remain to be seen.
The situation is ongoing, and things will happen quickly. If Iran doesn’t call President Trump and announce it is willing to accept any deals they’ve been offered, I would expect more strikes and more Iranian leadership and military targets attacked by Israel going into the weekend. This story is far from over.
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