When the United States and Israel initiated their joint attack on Iran on February 28, 2026, it was after the most recent attempts to negotiate a nuclear agreement between the US and Iran failed. Additional pre-attack happenings, including protests within Iran and the Iranian government’s attempts to repress them, also heightened tensions the relationship between the US and Iran.
There were indications in the weeks leading up to the attack, specifically with the US’s buildup of its military presence in the region. Iran responded in kind and, in the days that followed the first air strikes, the conflict escalated to include other countries in the region. President Donald Trump, for his part, began discussing the attack online, offering statements that contained several justifications and explanations.
Over subsequent days, Trump’s rationale for the war changed, as did his remarks, while Israel expanded its bombing to nearby Lebanon. The timeline of why the US and Israel initiated Operation Epic Fury and Operation Roaring Lion (as the actions were called, respectively) with Iran is clear, but the reasons for such a coordinated move remain in flux.
Iran Had Been Provoking War With The US For Decades
On February 28, 2026, in his social media post about the initial attacks on Iran, Donald Trump stated that the bombings by the US and Israel were carried out,
to prevent this very wicked radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests.
His lead-up to this statement included statements about previous actions by Iran against the US, including the hostage-taking crisis of the late 1970s and the Beirut bombing in 1983. However, claims like the one that Iran attacked the USS Cole in 2000 were overstated:
In 2000, they knew and were probably involved with the attack on the USS Cole. Many died.
Iran was complicit, per a federal legal finding in 2015, but was not directly responsible.
Overall, Iran’s funding of terrorist organizations was part of the rationale for taking military action. With ties to Hamas in Palestine, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen, Iran allegedly posed a threat to the US and Israel alike.
Throughout his initial comments, Trump referenced the loss of American lives at the hands of Iran. He also made it clear,
The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties. That often happens in war, but we’re doing this not for now. We’re doing this for the future. And it is a noble mission.
On March 4, 2026, however, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth chided the media’s efforts to “make the president look bad” by mentioning the US military personnel who had died in the early days of the war.
ran Was Unwilling To Abandon Off Its Nuclear Program
As Donald Trump explained during his 8-minute-speech posted after the first wave of attacks on Iran on February 28, 2026, Iran had not stopped trying to develop a nuclear weapon. He referenced Operation Midnight Hammer, carried out in June 2025, during which the US “destroyed” Iran’s nuclear efforts, and said:
We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally – again – obliterated … we obliterated the regime’s nuclear programme at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. After that attack, we warned them never to resume their malicious pursuit of nuclear weapons, and we sought repeatedly to make a deal.
Instead of working with the US,
[Iran] attempted to rebuild their nuclear program and to continue developing long-range missiles that can now threaten our very good friends and allies in Europe, our troops stationed overseas and could soon reach the American homeland.
In reality, Operation Midnight Hammer didn’t annihilate Iran’s nuclear program. According to the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, who spoke with CBS News at the time, the damage was “severe … but it’s not total.” Additionally, per the New York Times, there was no substantiation to claims that Iran was rebuilding its nuclear program at all.
Iran had not rebuilt any facilities since 2025. While the country possessed bombs that could strike US bases in the region and Europe, there were no indications that weapons that could reach the US existed or were in development. To be clear, these were not nuclear weapons but rather were intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
Iran Was Developing Missiles That Could Strike The Continental US
Donald Trump stated that the continental US was under the risk of an Iranian strike during his State of the Union Address on February 24, 2026:
[Iran] already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they’re working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America.
This alleged impending threat was part of what prompted the US to heighten its military presence in the region in the days leading up to the first attack.
When asked about Iran’s missile capabilities and whether or not they had intercontinental ballistic missiles that could reach the US, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on February 25, 2026,
I won’t speculate as to how far away they are … they are headed in the pathway to one day being able to develop weapons that could reach the continental US.
A 2025 report from the Defense Intelligence Agency indicated otherwise, noting only that Iran could potentially have intercontinental ballistic missiles by 2035.
Still, one more aspect of neutralizing Iran as a threat involved destroying its navy. The objectives of the war with Iran, articulated by Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense, on March 2, 2026, were to: “destroy the missile threats, destroy the navy, no nukes.” At no time, did Hegseth mention “regime change.”
To Facilitate Regime Change Bring “Freedom” To IranThe Iranian government, led by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei, was accused of atrocities by international and domestic observers alike. The Ayatollah had, in fact, ruled Iran with violence, fear, and dictatorial action for decades by the time he was killed on February 28, 2026. Waves of protest in Iran broke out in late December 2025 as Iranians pushed back against rising prices and an overall declining economy. Protests were violently repressed, with reports of arrests, torture, and massacres across the country. As many as 53,000 people were arrested during January 2026, per the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), although the Iranian Human Rights group had an estimate of about 10,000 arrests. Internet blackouts accompanied repression efforts.These actions were part of Donald Trump’s explanation for why the US and Israel struck Iran on February 28, 2026. His initial remarks outlined Iran’s connections to terrorist groups as well as its overall intent to kill Americans. He also spoke directly to the people of Iran:Finally, to the great proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand. Stay sheltered. Don’t leave your home. It’s very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere. When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be, probably, your only chance for generations. He continued,For many years you have asked for America’s help, but you never got it. No president was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight. Now you have a president who is giving you what you want. So let’s see how you respond. America is backing you with overwhelming strength and devastating force. Now is the time to seize control of your destiny and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach. This is the moment for action. Do not let it pass.Within hours of the first strikes on Iran, Trump doubled down on this, saying to The Washington Post, “All I want is freedom for the people.”Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth contradicted the President’s suggestion that regime change was part of the US agenda in comments he made on March 2, 2026:This is not a so-called regime change war, but the regime sure did change and the world is better off for it.
Diplomacy With Iran Was Never Going To Be Effective
Donald Trump and other individuals within his administration said the US had no intent of starting a protracted war with Iran. Retaliation by Iran prompted US officials and Trump to clarify on March 2, 2026, that the war was expected to last four or five weeks but that the military was prepared to undertake the operation longer, if needed.
Instead of going to the US Congress for an official declaration of war or, per the War Powers Resolution of 1973, notifying Congress within 48 hours of deploying US military troops, Trump acted unilaterally. He did consult Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, and had been in talks with Israel about a coordinated military offensive for weeks.
In an interview with The New York Times, Trump said that it was clear neither the US nor Israel would get what they wanted from diplomatic conversations:
Toward the end of the negotiation, I realized that these guys weren’t going to get there … “Let’s just do it.”
When it came to exactly what would have matched the needs of the US and Israel, it’s not entirely clear. From Trump’s perspective,
They want to make a deal, but we haven’t heard those secret words, “We will never have a nuclear weapon” … My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy. But one thing is certain: I will never allow the world’s number one sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon.
Israel Was Going To Strike Iran Which Would Have Put US Lives At Risk
On March 2, 2026, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the US took action against Iran because,
We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action … We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.
Israel and the US have been close allies in the region for decades, and a significant portion of the former’s military budget comes from aid provided by the latter.
Additionally, Rubio explained:
There absolutely was an imminent threat … and the imminent threat was that we knew that if Iran was attacked – and we believed they would be attacked – that they would immediately come after us.
The links between Israel and the US in the region, as well as the animosity felt by Israel from numerous Arab neighbors, could have proved deadly for Americans as a result.