What's the US role in the Israel-Iran conflict? – DW – 06/13/2025

US President Donald Trump claims his country was not involved with Israel's attacks on Iran. At the same time, he threatens that if Tehran doesn't reach a nuclear deal with the US, attacks on Iran "will only get worse."
The US government's political line after Israel's attack on Iran is clear: Washington had no part in it.
"Israel took unilateral action against Iran," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement shared by the White House. "We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region. Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defense … Let me be clear: Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel."
The White House social media team posted the statement on social media platform X roughly an hour after the start of Israel's attacks on Iran early Friday morning. Later, on Friday evening, Iran launched retaliatory attacks on Israel.
Before that, on Thursday, the US State Department posted a warning on X about the complex security situation in the Middle East: "We remind U.S. citizens in Israel and the broader region of the continued need for caution and encourage them to monitor the news for breaking developments."
The US was informed about the attack in advance. But were they really not actively involved in any way?
"Everything we know so far about the logistics, for example about the hidden drones in Iran, suggests that Israel carried out the attack alone," Sascha Lohmann, senior associate and part of the America regional research group at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said in an interview with DW. "But we cannot completely rule out the possibility that the US helped."
The deployment of 200 military jets that flew to Iran and back, for example, raises the question of whether the US military provided support with air-to-air refueling, according to Lohmann.
Iran's nuclear program under attack
Israel's attacks early Friday morning were mainly directed against military facilities and sites involved in Iran's nuclear program, such as the Natanz nuclear facility, where uranium is enriched, among other things. In addition to several leading figures in the Iranian military, at least six scientists and researchers working on Iran's nuclear program were killed.
Since April 2025, Tehran and Washington had been holding talks to reach an agreement to replace the old nuclear deal with Iran, from which the US withdrew during Trump's first term in 2018.
After Israel's attack on Iran's nuclear infrastructure, Trump was quoted by Fox News reporter Bret Baier as saying that "Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb."
Expert: Israel caught Iran by surprise
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"We hope to get back to the negotiating table," Trump said, according to the right-leaning TV channel. "We'll see."
Trump: Attacks on Iran 'will only get worse!'
Trump used much harsher language on his social media platform Truth Social. He wrote in a post that he had given Iran many chances to reach a nuclear deal with him. If that doesn't happen, Trump says he warned Iranian leadership that they're facing an attack that's much worse than anything they could imagine.
"The United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the world by far," Trump wrote. "Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come ― and they know how to use it."
The Iranian hardliners who spoke out against a nuclear deal are "all DEAD now," Trump continued in his post, "and it will only get worse!"
Meanwhile, US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff warned that Iran is also capable of causing considerable damage in Israel.
Further nuclear negotiations between the US and Iran unlikely
The next meeting between the US and Iranian delegations on a possible new nuclear agreement was supposed to take place this Sunday in Oman, but Iran canceled it.
It is also unclear how the talks will proceed in the long term. Ali Shamkhani, a close confidant and advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, is said to be among those killed in Iran. According to German news magazine Spiegel, Shamkhani played an important role in the nuclear talks between the US and Iran. He is said to have been open to an agreement, but also warned that the government in Tehran could end its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and expel UN nuclear inspectors if Iran felt threatened.
"As long as the conflict continues with its current intensity, it is difficult to imagine that the talks will continue," Lohmann said.
This article was originally published in German

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