This piece will serve as an update for the ongoing conflict between the joint efforts of the United States and Israel against the nation of Iran. This conflict has changed rapidly over just a handful of weeks. This article aims to provide some brief background before going into how the war stands today.

With the initial launch of “Operation Epic Fury” by the US, the US had already shifted discussions of attack from those surrounding offense (eliminating important Iranian targets) to defense (taking necessary steps to fulfill US objectives). The operation still has not been backed by concrete evidence of planned offensive attacks from Iran and has instead been justified on the grounds of Iran developing a nuclear weapon. This idea has been circulated by the US and Benjamin Netanyahu (Israel’s prime minister) since the 1990s or earlier. This reasoning was also used to justify the strikes from last year in June.

On February 28, the US and Israel sent out strikes, killing Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. This set off a chain reaction of both mourning and celebration in Iran. It also resulted in more strikes being sent to Iran by the US and Israel. Iran retaliated in an attack on US military sites in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, as well as some civilian sites in Saudi Arabia and an attack on Jordan that was intercepted.

According to the US government, this operation has been nearly over or close to complete many times. The strikes have been ongoing, and the death toll continues to grow, but statements made by President Trump and other leaders have been contradicted by themselves and others, sometimes saying that the war is over while other times saying it is still an ongoing process.

Most recently on March 17, Israel stated that they killed Ari Larijani, a key figure for the Iranian government, and that they plan to kill Khamenei’s son Mojtaba soon. This killing is implicated as a contributing factor to the issues with the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s biggest access points for oil and gas. Since Larijani was working towards assisting with the Strait, his death could mean more time that the Strait is closed and that oil distribution around the world is affected.