Public sentiment is highly polarized, characterized by skepticism and frustration towards media portrayals and military actions. Many express support for Iran's right to defend itself while others advocate for Israel's security. The overwhelming sentiment is marked by distrust of media narratives, fears of escalation, and a sense of resignation about the ongoing conflict, leading to a mix of criticism towards both governments and a low level of public trust.

Israel

Iran

United States

SS

Reports say Israel is preparing to strike Iran, with the U.S. pulling diplomats from Iraq in anticipation of retaliation. Trump has recently opposed such a move, preferring negotiation - despite threatening such a strike at earlier stages.

How might Iran respond? Could this succeed in halting their nuclear program, and is it likely to trigger wider conflict? how will the U.S. and other regional actors react if things escalate?

blippyj

As much as I really don't want Iran to have a nuclear weapon - now or ever - I'm uncertain of the wisdom of this. At best, this only sets them back by a few years. It won't destroy all their stockpiles or the scientific knowledge to start fresh. At worst it could easily have geopolitical implications far beyond the region.

clydewoodforest

If there is an attack, I think we'll at least see a shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz. The effects of that could be more pronounced than the damage Israel 'might' be able to do to Iran's nuclear infrastructure.

kyfriedtexan

Hard to see the risk vs benefit ratio of this be good, negotiations haven’t been exhausted, and it’s vague at best if Trump backs this. 

And there is a real risk of the gulf countries and Israel both being devastated in a war due to a strike that dosen’t even take out the Iranian nucleur program.

spinosaurs70

Israel's alignment with Trump led to scrapping the JCPOA. Now, proposing a full-scale attack on Iran's nuclear facilities; while possessing its own nukes and potentially aiding Saudi Arabia's nuclear ambitions—is dangerously counterproductive.  

Such an attack would provoke Iran, potentially devastating global oil supplies, and triggering a financial crisis without direct strikes on Israel. It would isolate Israel, turn the Middle East into a disaster zone, and strain U.S. support; especially with Netanyahu's unpopular wartime expansion. 

Global powers would react negatively: China relies on stable Gulf oil transit, Russia values Iran as a key ally, and forcing NATO to support an unprovoked attack by a non-member could fracture the alliance while being forced to defend Israel from self-inflicted consequences.

lizardk101

Attacking Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, Iran... Wow

-SineNomine-

If Israel hits the Iranian nuclear reactors and causes a significant release of radioactive material into the atmosphere, Iran would be justified in responding to a nuclear attack.

an_older_meme

Israel has nuclear-armed submarines, so I don't really see Iran attacking Israel with nukes in any scenario except their country's imminent destruction.  Giving nukes to their proxies would be likely considered by Israel to be the same as using the nukes themselves. Frankly, Israel's nukes are probably the #1 reason Iran feels the need to have nukes.

The U.S. should remain neutral in this conflict.  Israel is the relatively "newcomer" in the area, they've acted like jerks for a long time, illegally aquired nukes, and they've been trying to dominate the entire region for decades.  They have massive global influence, funds, and global media to support them.  They do not "need" the U.S. to stick its neck out to help them while they promote aggressive policies, expanding settlements, etc. It's not worth another 9/11, when Israel hasn't given peace a real try.
If Israeli extremists had not killed Yitzhak Rabin and went down a dark path of extremism.... who knows, there may have been peace by now.

yourmomwasmyfirst

Would this be the time to do it? Iran’s proxy network is severely degraded in many places. What would the goal be?

MeatPiston

The best way to ensure that Iran will get nukes is to do this. First off, there is now evidence that it will do much to slow down Iran’s nuke program. Secondly, Iran can always just buy a nuke from NK, China, Pakistan and/or Russia.

TaxLawKingGA

isreal was ready to attack Iran last year...they were ready, five years ago...they were ready ten years ago..they were ready twenty years ago...I think you get the picture.


now, and reddit wont like this, that isreal has shown if you directly take out the leaders, the conflict starts to resolve quicker, who do you think they will strike first??? dont say it out loud though, cuz it will break Reddits rules..

littleredpinto

Who gives them the right to bomb another country? Who gives them the right to occupy parts of Syria? What happened to international order?

Jaskojaskojasko

[SkyNewsArabia reporting 800 drones and cruise missiles have been launched at Israel](https://x.com/SkyNewsArabia_B/status/1933399210780496144)

Iran seems to have responded

Randomy7262

Was pretty right about striking, but day late. 

If I were Iran what I would do? 

Attacking oil facilities in Haifa, Haifa port, Eilat port, major civ airfields and if Hezbollah has any strenght gas fields on sea

TSiNNmreza3

https://x.com/Osinttechnical/status/1933397961645367806

Turns out they didn't even need stealth planes

obsessed_doomer

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/zelenskyy-us-moved-20000-missiles-fight-drones-ukraine/story?id=122662585

**Zelenskyy: US diverting 20,000 missiles promised for Ukraine to the Middle East**
 
&gt; Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told ABC News' Martha Raddatz that his defense minister told him Friday the U.S. was sending anti-drone weapons promised to Ukraine to the Middle East instead.
&gt; 
&gt; Zelenskyy said the U.S. would divert "20,000 missiles" earmarked for Ukraine in an agreement with the Biden administration to the Middle East, where it appears the U.S. would use them for its own force protection,
&gt; 
&gt; The Ukrainian president said the assets were “not expensive, but [a] special technology” which **specifically defended against Shahed drones**.

Given that this is true, is it safe to assume that these missiles of unmentioned model are being reserved for a potential Iranian retaliation?

the-vindicator

If, indeed, the United States neither assisted in planning Israel's attack, approved it, nor pledged support, then Trump should issue a statement reaffirming these facts. He should also warn Iran that any attack on U.S. interests will be considered an act of war and met with decisive action, including the adoption of a policy supporting regime change in Iran.

Tall-Needleworker422

It’ll be interesting to see if the Iranian government even survives. I see an opening for either a revolution or a civil war. It doesn’t help that the regime is unpopular. Kind of sad though since Iran was an oasis of stability at least internally even with a ruthless regime in charge. Sort of like Libya under Gaddafi and we all know how Libya turned out.

MICBKID

Its pretty clear now: Iran has no sticks left. They've been neutered and now Israel has complete domination of their airspace. People aren't realizing how bad this is for Iran yet.

When Iran wheels out some missiles in revenge... Israel is just going to hit them like they did Hezbollah. 

The regime may survive but Iran's ability to flex power against Israel (except through occasional terror) is done.

Mr24601

can someone explain the background / truthfulness to this small statement from this article:

https://www.axios.com/2025/06/13/israel-strike-iran-trump-nuclear-talks

**Israel strikes Iran's nuclear sites and military chiefs, U.S. denies any role**

&gt; The IDF official claimed that in recent weeks, Israel had indications that Iran was racing for a nuclear bomb — and that with every day that passed, Israel would have less visibility into Iran's advancements. "We are now in a strategic window of opportunity and close to a point of no return, and we had no choice but to take action," the official said.
&gt; Iran denies that it is pursuing a nuclear weapon, and **the U.S. and other allies have made no such warning about Iran racing toward a bomb**.

I thought it was a given that Iran was developing nuclear weapons, producing higher percentage enriched uranium. One quick search cites them achieving 60%. My understanding is that nuclear weapons require very highly enriched uranium and nuclear energy generation requires a very low percent enrichment. Is it invalid to assume that the process of enriching uranium to increasingly higher percentages implies a desire to develop it to a weapons level? are there more mundane applications for ~60+% enrichment?

I can understand Iran publicly stating that they aren't interested in developing weapons while doing so in secret but to have the US saying that "Iran is not racing to the bomb"?

Additionally has there been spread any credible evidence for the claim that Iran was days away from being able to build multiple bombs?

---

Finally anyone have any recommendations for contemporary books on nuclear theory? one to read just for fun.

Wait so can’t Iran just keep firing ballistic missiles for like years and years? And at that point what’s Israel’s end game since Israel can’t do a ground invasion of Iran (although I guess they could but marching through Syria and Iraq might be cost heavy)

i feel like in light of the current events one of the mods should make a wiki sticky with a crash course on very basic air combat concepts. i think it would be incredibly useful as i'm seeing a lot of users engaged in good faith discussions of genuine interest, but with very poor understandings of the most basic air combat concepts.

some good concepts to include would be a primer on the general characteristics of 5th gen stealth (i.e. how it is aspect-focused, bandwidth focused stealth, in contrast to say, the b2's many-aspect many-bandwidth flying wing stealth), a very general explanation of how modern iads operates, a basic explanation of countermeasures, etc. obviously no deep and detailed explanation can be had due to the complexity of the material but i think some primer paragraphs could go a long way in helping welcome newer defense enthusiasts into the community and let them jump into the discussions more easily. this is looking like it's going to be a very air-centric few days

supersaiyannematode

My understanding is Israel doesn't have enough large bombs to attack the deepest Iranian nuclear facilities, so did USA provide them with the appropriate weapons, or is Israel just hitting soft targets at the nuclear sites?

[https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/challenges-involved-military-strikes-against-irans-nuclear-programme](https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/challenges-involved-military-strikes-against-irans-nuclear-programme)

stingrayer

The Financial Times [reports](https://www.ft.com/content/9def8cb1-0a22-4ce7-ba53-b3e0e040c955) that Iran has vowed retaliation against Israel and the U.S. I realize that the Iranian regime considers Israel to be America's lap dog, but the U.S. has disavowed involvement. Even if Iran believes the US to be lying, is it wise to attack the US and invite reprisal when it already has its hands full with Israel?

So Bargheri survived the original wave, then got hit by a separate one.

How compromised is Tehran

Is it just me or is Iran air defense systems punching well below their weight? 

Yes, I know Israel is using f35s and stealth fighters. But they are not invulnerable to radar detection and they are vulnerable to passive IR detection. Of which Iran does have. A lot of. 

I know Israel would have better weapons and would probably have acceptable losses. But Iran should still be able to hit something. 

Instead, it seems Iran is completely defenseless. 

The only thing that makes sense is Iran's military is just completely incompetent. Especially the air defense force. Do they just buy equipment and never train on it? Can they really be that stupid? 

Or is Israel punching well above their weight with significantly better intelligence than Iran? 

I'm not sure. I'm just kind of surprised.

OhSillyDays

Is there any indication of cyber attacks/internet DoS? Updates and video postings from inside Iran seem to have stopped about 30 minutes ago, whereas there were new videos every few minutes before

ajguy16

Incredibly bizarre after the global reporting this week on potential strikes against Iran as soon as this weekend that all of these HVTs were not moved to secure locations. Especially after prior Israeli attacks on IRGC and Hezbollah leadership.

Playboi_Jones_Sr

Do we have a rough idea the scales of the strikes?

sndream

I don't really see how Iran can respond other than bombing some Israeli military installations. The US will get involved if that actually attack the cities, and Israel clearly owns the air.

NigroqueSimillima

Is it possible these strikes could lead iran to blockade or limit access to the strait of hormuz, or will they try to focus their reactions on israel specifically.

Do we know if iran is interested in pissing off everyone in an attempt to build pressure internationally on israel?

orangesnz

That’s usually how military conflicts work…

SpakysAlt

Well that is what countries tend to do when they’re at war. 
It’s more a question of their ability to do so.

pineappleban

Pizza Hut near the Pentagon is very busy tonight. 

[https://x.com/Osinttechnical/status/1932903728862146812](https://x.com/Osinttechnical/status/1932903728862146812)

Id really dial in and take this one seriously. Its not the usual guff with nothing happening in the background, even if it might blow over, its very likely serious people are making serious plans just in case.

IndividualSkill3432

Lol. I'm no fan of trump but imagine the response if this happened? Trump wanted to nuke a hurricane lol. Tehran would be the next Grozny

cynical-rationale

.. lol.. even under this incompetent administration such an action would not end favorably for Iran

Pure_System9801

Looks like the negotiations are going well.

BigBob141

Iran is likely a paper tiger here.  But, they are emboldened because the they smell a weaker resolve from the US.  The more they react, the worse it will get.

More unrest coming.

PreacherCoach

Drawing the US into a war you're already over-matched in is certainly a choice.

WOOKIExCOOKIES

Like their two attempts to strike Israel? 😂

consciousaiguy

Iran threatens to end its own existence for some reason.

McGrawHell

I don’t think they realize this wouldn’t end up being an even trade. 😂

UpsetAstronomer

I thought Trump was going to bring world peace??

jawndell

I thought the self nominated Nobel Peace winner was going to end all wars.

Lagas76

Marines need time to become battle hardened in LA before they take on Iran.

Zongledongle

That's 578th time to starting WW3. Nothing won't happen.

Lonely_Parsnip

Sounds like they are giving up on a nuclear deal if they’re pulling out the diplomats. Almost 6 months as president and 0 deals have been made.

SpiritualName2684

[deleted]

Hmmm it’s almost as if were a nuclear treaty in place this wouldn’t be a problem 🤔

HeibyGB

par-a-dox-i-cal

“If the US attacks us, we win attack them back”, says Iran. No shit. Does this really deserve an article ?

What makes it even more funny is all the Americans in the comments going “they cannot do that, or we will attack them”. That is not much of a deterrent in a scenario that implies you have already attacked them, you know ? 

And while there is no way for Iran to win that war (unless they start building nukes, which they might be able to do), they definitely have the means to kill a lot of American soldiers before they lose it. I am not sure US voters are going to be happy if Trump starts that war and this happens, especially if the conflict lasts years.

NekoCatSidhe

Bla bla bla. Just More Noise. We know that there‘s no war coming any time soon and Neither will Iran Attack US troops for now

Distinct_Cup_1598

Sure, they know our president is a pussy,  and the sec of defense is an imbecile and drunkard.

Exotic-Debt-8706

What else did they think we think they were going to try?

EfficiencyIVPickAx

It's not like it would be news to them, you would expect they have planned for that idea if they strike iran

Quick-Albatross-9204

we just need two weeks to see if Iran is serious about peace

likeonions

_chip

The long awaited sequel to Iraq keeps getting teased, but I’m doubtful it’ll happen.

Arathorn-the-Wise

Can’t wait for the proportional response

Wildest12

Don't worry, if any soldiers are impacted, they will only get headaches.

n8dom

SebVettelstappen

I don't know. Last time we took one of their people out they shot down one of their own passenger planes.

oldfogey12345

Their fleet and launch pads will be destroyed by the time they can react. Iran needs to stop thinking that attacking the us will end up with the survival of Iran.

Hikashuri

Iran the numbers, and this would end badly for all involved.

spectral75

You think we go crazy when you attack our boats…

Farrudar

With TACO the king of deals everything will be fine, right?

Radiant-Bit-7722

Iran threatens to set itself on fire if holding its breath forever doesn’t get it what it wants.

BoozyMcBoozehound

Invitation to very high velocity visitors, making BIG parties.

TV-Tommy

Israel strikes Iran after Trump leaks that they will

SnoopingStuff

kislips

No more wars! The Israeli government is going to drag us into another one.

Ok_Squash9609

Yayyy more wars, as if ongoing ones are not sufficient 😭

Ok-Pipe-5151

Well yeah... that's what a military conflict is.

Weak-Shoe-6121

Do it Iran, you’ll unite the entire US like Japan did in WW2

Code1821

Iran does realize that can glass them, right?

Bevrykul

We will shoot you if a war starts! In all seriousness though, while Iran is on the short list of countries whose leadership is always saying stupid and provocative things, I wonder if they feel the need to say it more considering we now have a leader who also says stupid and provocative things.

100000000000

Tensions between Israel and Iran have escalated dramatically with military responses including Israeli airstrikes on Iranian leaders and Iran's drone attacks on Israel.

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