ON SATURDAY June 21 2025, President Donald Trump announced that his military had successfully bombed three Iranian nuclear facilities: Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan.

According to Trump, it was a large-scale attack in which Fordow, a heavily secured underground facility, was struck with a full load of bunker-buster bombs (GBU-57). Additionally, 30 Tomahawk missiles were launched from submarines at the facilities in Natanz and Esfahan.

Trump stated the operation was executed flawlessly, with all planes safely exiting Iranian air space. He called it a “historic moment for the United States, Israel, and the world” and urged Iran to “end the war now.”

US media confirmed that Israel had been informed in advance and was actively involved in the planning. Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Trump in a video message for his “bold decision” and called the US attack a “historic turning point.”

Iranian state media minimised the attack’s impact, reporting that personnel and nuclear material had been evacuated from the targeted facilities in time. It’s not yet clear how severely the nuclear facilities have been damaged.

The attack came barely a week after Israel launched a surprise strike on Iran on June 13. That was a co-ordinated operation in consultation with the US, personally approved by Trump.

While Washington publicly conducted peace talks, it secretly supplied weapons, intelligence, and logistical support — including 300 Hellfire missiles. The Pentagon moved a nuclear aircraft carrier to the Arabian Sea and sent dozens of tanker aircraft to Europe, ready for deployment in the Middle East.

Why this attack?

Just like Israel, the US justifies its military strike by claiming that Tehran is on the verge of building a nuclear bomb. But that’s war propaganda.

Both US intelligence agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recently confirmed that there’s no evidence of an active nuclear weapons programme in Iran.

Until 1979, Iran was part of the Western camp and was even allowed to develop a nuclear programme. But after the 1979 revolution, it became an enemy of the West, and both the US and Israel sought regime change.

Since regime change has so far failed and seems unlikely for now, the US-Israel axis is attempting to neutralise Iran as a regional subpower.

The long-term goal in the Middle East is to fragment countries into smaller, weaker entities that can no longer operate independently, ideally governed by pro-Western forces. The aim is to create a region where no country is larger or more powerful than Israel, thereby securing Israel’s regional dominance.

To achieve that, Israel is expected to “do the dirty work,” according to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. For this purpose, it’s armed by the US and its Western allies with the most lethal and advanced weapons, and it can also count on military and logistical support from Washington.

And when necessary, Washington lends a helping hand — as has happened now.

This past week, Israel applied the same strategy in Iran as it had earlier in Lebanon: targeted assassinations, precision bombings, and disabling communication networks. It also targeted fuel depots to disrupt domestic supply and possibly hinder oil exports — especially to China.

Everything aims at weakening the government and society. It’s reminiscent of what happened in Iraq after 2003 and more recently in Syria. In both countries, central authority and the army were severely weakened, and the territory was de facto partitioned into areas where the government had little or no control.

In both cases, this occurred through external military aggression and by turning population groups against one another. The US, Israel and their Western allies are likely trying something similar in Iran. As in Iraq and Syria, the Kurds in Iran form a significant minority group.

According to investigative journalist Ben Norton, the war against Iran is ultimately intended to weaken China and reinforce US global hegemony.

The US is actively supporting Israel with intelligence, weapons, and training — and now also with bombings — with the goal of regime change in Tehran.

He cites Michael Flynn, former national security adviser to Donald Trump, who says that a pro-US regime would undermine China and confirm the power of the US and Israel.

According to German politician Sevim Dagdelen, this military action fits into a broader US strategy. It is a global three-front war strategy aimed at maintaining US dominance against the Brics countries and the global South.

In Europe, Germany plays a leading role in Nato’s proxy war against Russia; in the Middle East, Israel is conducting a proxy war against Iran with US support; and in east Asia, the US is preparing for confrontation with China, with countries like Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines being groomed as front-line states.

Why now?

Washington and Tel Aviv now see the perfect moment to strike Iran and attempt a final blow. The recent elimination of Iranian air defences by Israel, the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, the weakening of Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the destruction of Gaza have tilted the regional balance of power strongly in favour of Israel and its Western allies.

How this conflict will unfold is currently completely uncertain. With its first attacks, Israel inflicted serious military damage in Iran, hitting command structures and possibly delaying parts of the nuclear programme.

But the initial euphoria in Israel quickly gave way to realism when Iran struck deep inside Israeli territory with missiles. The destruction in Israeli cities shattered the illusion of invulnerability.

Given the large number of ballistic missiles Iran possesses (2,000), Tehran may be able to sustain such bombardments for several more weeks.

Now that the US has entered this war, the question is how Iran will retaliate. The US has military bases in countries such as Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar. Will those become targets for Iranian missiles? Will militias from Yemen (the so-called Houthis) attack cargo ships in the Red Sea?

Will Iran move to block the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial maritime route for oil? That would send oil prices soaring and have far-reaching consequences for the global economy.

In any case, international tensions have risen sharply again. It’s the first time the US has directly attacked military targets in Iran since the start of the conflict. Fears are growing that this escalation could mark the beginning of a much wider war in the region — or even beyond.

The coming days will tell.