Iran in regional and international confrontation

Iran is at war with the United States and Israel. The war began in February 2026 with strikes that killed Iran's supreme leader, and it has run since through ceasefires that did not hold. The United States and Israel want an Iran without a path to a nuclear weapon and without armed allies across the region; Israel wants the Islamic Republic gone. Iran wants to survive as it is, keep its nuclear programme and its allies, and end the sanctions. The Arab states of the Gulf sit between them and have been struck by both the war and its consequences.

Where it stands · September 2026

On 5 September the United States struck three Iranian oil tankers after missile attacks on Navy ships. On 9 September it destroyed five more; Iran retaliated against Jordan. On 11 September the Houthis seized a key Red Sea port and islands in Yemen. On 23 September the United States and Iran held their first talks since June at the UN General Assembly. On 26 September Trump rejected an Iranian ceasefire plan and a proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. On 27 September he said talks would resume.

What the dispute is about

The bomb. Iran enriches uranium far beyond what power stations need and says it seeks no weapon. Its opponents say the capacity is the weapon, and that a state which calls for Israel's end cannot be allowed it. Israel has nuclear weapons of its own and has never said so.

The region. Iran arms and funds forces in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and Gaza. It calls them a defence in depth against states that have attacked it; its opponents call them the means by which Iran makes war without paying for it.

The Islamic Republic itself. Whether the state founded in 1979 is a legitimate government to be dealt with, or a regime to be ended.

Each of the three could be bargained over alone. Together they are not, because for Iran giving up the first two means standing defenceless before those who want the third.

How each side explains it

Tehran's account

Foreign powers have run or tried to run Iran for a century. In 1953 the United States and Britain overthrew its elected prime minister for nationalising the oil, and ruled through the Shah for a generation. When Iranians took their country back in 1979, the West armed Iraq to invade it, chemical weapons included, and a US warship shot down an Iranian airliner. Iran has attacked no country in two hundred years. It signed the nuclear agreement of 2015 and kept it; the United States tore it up. Twice since, in June 2025 and February 2026, it was bombed in the middle of negotiations, the second time with the murder of its head of state. It is a member of the treaty against nuclear weapons, under inspection, with a religious ruling against the bomb, threatened by a state that has the bomb and accepts no inspection at all. The sanctions are a war on its people. Its allies are peoples resisting occupation. The waters off its coast are its own to defend.

In our coverage

Iran's nuclear program, system and Hormuz stance are sovereign rights →1312 headlines
Covered by:IRNA · Press TV · Fars News
The Axis of Resistance is legitimate anti-Israel/anti-US liberation →899 headlines
Press TV · IRNA · Fars News

What each account leaves out

Tehran's leaves out the protesters it has shot and hanged; the uranium enriched close to weapons grade and the inspectors turned away; the hostages it has taken, from 1979 to today's dual nationals; the civilians its allies have killed; and its attacks on merchant ships and on neighbours who were no party to the war.

Washington's and Jerusalem's leaves out 1953, the Shah and the arming of Iraq; that Iran was keeping the 2015 agreement when the United States left it; that both wars were begun while talks were under way; Israel's own arsenal; the ordinary Iranians ruined by sanctions and killed by strikes; and that the invasion of Iraq in 2003 is what opened the region to Iran in the first place.

The ledger

Iran

Wanted: there is not one Iran; the state wants survival, the programme and its allies, while much of the population wants an ordinary life and many want the state gone.
Did: enriched, armed its allies, closed the strait, struck back.
Gained: proof that it can close the world's main oil route.
Paid: its leader, much of its navy and air defence, its nuclear sites, its economy, its allies in Lebanon and Syria.

The United States

Wanted: no Iranian bomb and an exit from the region.
Did: sanctions, two bombing campaigns, a blockade, and negotiations in between.
Gained: a badly weakened Iran.
Paid

Words in dispute

Names and terms the sides do not share. This page keeps them out of its own voice.

regime / Islamic Republic
Axis of Resistance / proxies, terrorist network
pre-emptive strike / aggression
assassination, martyrdom / targeted killing
maximum pressure / economic terrorism
Persian Gulf / Arabian Gulf
blockade / maritime security operation

Iran in regional and international confrontation

What the dispute is about

How each side explains it

Tehran's account

What each account leaves out

The ledger

Iran

The United States

Words in dispute

Primary actors

Also involved

Washington's and Jerusalem's account

The Gulf Arab states' account

Israel

The Gulf Arab states

What changed the course