U.S. President Donald Trump has announced that the Islamic Republic and Israel have reached a ceasefire agreement, which is expected to be officially declared soon. If this news proves accurate, it would appear that the war that began at dawn on June 13 has now, after 12 days, seemingly come to an end. A detailed discussion of the ceasefire process and a comprehensive evaluation of this 12-day war will be reserved for another occasion. However, one point cannot be ignored regarding Trump’s direct involvement in the final hours of the war.
It now appears that the U.S. attack on Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan marked the beginning of the end of the war. We know that this strike was deliberately exaggerated. A massive media frenzy surrounded it. Although militarily it held little actual significance, it had a very specific imperialist political objective one that can be explained by analyzing Trump’s psychological motivations during this period.
Trump knew that the war between Iran and Israel could not drag on for long for numerous reasons. Whether a formal negotiation and compromise would follow or not, the Islamic Republic’s nuclear project, at least in this phase was effectively halted, which Israel could consider a victory. But Trump was not about to let the “credit” for dismantling this project go entirely to Netanyahu.
Before the morning of June 12, the start of the war, Trump had made attempts to force the Islamic Republic into retreat through negotiations backed by military threats in hopes of claiming that victory for himself. He desperately needed that win. Since taking office, he had made a string of grand promises, most of which had burst like bubbles. He failed to reclaim the Panama Canal for the U.S., failed to annex Greenland from Denmark or make Canada the 51st U.S. state. He could not end the war in Ukraine or win a Nobel Peace Prize. His tariff policies turned into an economically risky gamble that had to be abandoned halfway. Only immigration and deportation policies remained areas that brought no real prestige, despite being harsh.
Thus, the Islamic Republic remained the last opportunity for Trump to claim a symbolic victory amid a sea of failures.
Despite two months of efforts and six rounds of indirect and direct negotiations between delegations, Trump failed to achieve his goal. He realized that in diplomatic games, the Islamic Republic was a match he could not beat. This last chance for even a minimal triumph was slipping away. It was at this point that he gave Israel the green light to attack.
After ten days, with a clear view of how the war would conclude, Trump made his move. He made it clear to Netanyahu that the victory should not be his alone, and he should not overreach. Had Trump waited any longer to deploy his bombers, even this last opportunity to grab some of the glory would have been lost. Thus, the U.S. action needed to be timely, dramatic, and loud. This was the political essence of America’s direct military intervention in the Iran-Israel war at the eleventh hour.
Netanyahu, realizing this too, resorted to a childish stunt the next day by bombing the same mountains near Fordow again with regular fighter jets just to keep his own name in the headlines alongside Trump.
But here lies the bitter irony of our times: On one side, we have the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, who has squandered trillions of dollars from the Iranian people’s wealth gained through the suffering and exploitation of workers on a hollow nuclear project that could have instead brought economic development, welfare, and comfort to the people.
And on the other side, we have figures like Trump and Netanyahu, ruthless men who rule over our world.
