Shapiro served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East until January—charged with, among other things, considering scenarios in which tensions between Israel and Iran escalated into all-out war and preparing U.

Hundreds of civilians, mostly in Iran, have been killed by dueling airstrikes despite international pleas for de-escalation.

President Trump rejected an Israeli plan in recent days to kill Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a senior U.S. official told USA TODAY.

Despite public opposition, Trump pulled the U.S. out of the original Iran nuclear deal in 2018. That arrangement, signed by several world powers, restricted Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. Countries and organizations around the world lamented the U.S.’s withdrawal, while conservatives and Israel celebrated it.

As if the genocide in Palestine were not enough, Israel simultaneously unleashed a war through a blatant and large-scale aggression. Does not Israel best

President Donald Trump said the United will come down on Iran “at levels never seen before” if the Middle Eastern country attacks.

But Israel's formidable and sophisticated military forces - with an arsenal largely, but not exclusively, provided by the United States - are enabling it to overpower a much larger enemy. The BBC looks at the military balance in the latest war in the Middle East.

Despite stunning early successes in Israel’s unprecedented strikes on Iran, a weekend of intensive bombardment and retaliation is raising questions about Israel’s exit strategy – how it can end this conflict with its ambitious goals achieved.

The group is one of the most powerful and shadowy arms of Iran’s military, and it has long been on the front line of a shadow conflict with Israel.