The president of Iran has stirred significant concern with recent comments about the country’s relationship with the United States, which he describes as a state of war. The remarks come as President Donald Trump meets with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, who has taken an aggressive stance against Iran as well. These developments raise fears of a return to conflict after the countries fought this summer.
The Iranian president says the country is at war with the U.S. and its allies
Though Iran has not formally issued a declaration of war against the United States, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday, “In my opinion, we are in a full-fledged war with America, Israel and Europe. They do not want our country to stand on its feet.”
Pezeshkian made these remarks during an interview with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s website. The remarks come six months after Iran and Israel fought a 12-day war in which Israel struck against Iran’s nuclear program and military facilities, among other targets. The Trump administration briefly intervened as well, bombing three Iranian nuclear facilities. Pezeshkian’s inclusion of Europe comes after Britain, France and Germany resumed sanctions against Iran in September due to Iran’s nuclear program.
Pezeshkian described the conflict with Israel and these Western nations as more threatening than the devastating Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. “This war is worse than Iraq’s war against us. If one understands it well, this war is far more complex and difficult than that war,” Pezeshkian said. His talk of war doesn’t immediately indicate that large-scale military actions by Iran are imminent. Such a decision would have to be approved by the country’s supreme leader. But the remarks are indicative of the decline in U.S. relations with Iran as well as the ongoing hostilities between Iran and Israel. Pezeshkian declared that Iran’s military has rebuilt its strength since the June war, indicating that if the United States and Iran attacked again, “they will naturally face a more decisive response.”
Possibilities for escalating conflict or renewed negotiations with Iran
Pezeshkian’s comments came days before Netanyahu was scheduled to arrive in the United States to meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Monday, a day after Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Florida resort. While Trump and Zelenskyy have had a rocky relationship and disagreed sharply over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Netanyahu and Trump have been close allies. Netanyahu is expected to push Trump toward more joint military operations against Iran, this time targeting the country’s ballistic missile program.
It is unclear how Trump may respond to such requests. In the past, Trump and Netanyahu have shared a hardline stance against Iran. During his first term, Trump canceled a deal that the Obama administration had negotiated with Iran to halt the country’s nuclear weapons programs in exchange for certain concessions and easing of sanctions. Although Trump has pursued an aggressive foreign policy against Iran in the past, he is currently pushing the notion of himself as a peacemaker in the Middle East and elsewhere, and Trump’s Republican base is divided on the idea of additional military action against Iran or other Middle Eastern nations. The stalled peace process over the war in Gaza is another source of contention between Trump and Netanyahu, with Israel continuing to launch strikes in Gaza despite the ceasefire.
All these circumstances create a great deal of uncertainty for the Middle East and for the United States. With Trump being pulled in multiple directions, it is unclear how he will choose to engage with Iran going forward. For the time being, however, Iran’s president sees the relationship with the United States as already being one of conflict, and a continuing “war” between the countries could create a dangerous situation for all nations involved and for the Middle East as a whole.