Washington- Since the success of the Iranian revolution in 1979, Washington has adopted a clear military strategy to deal with the Iranian regime that depends on the respect of Tehran 3 red lines, and the latter realizes that any of them will lead to Washington to attack it militarily.
These lines:
- Preventing or obstructing Iran is to ship oil through the Strait of Hormuz
- Tehran is close to obtaining a nuclear weapon
- The presence of a real military threat from Iran to one of the Gulf Washington allies.
Since the appearance of a presidential candidate in 2025, US President Donald Trump has not departed from Washington’s text towards Iran, but he reiterated on every occasion that Democratic President Barack Obama signed the worst deal in history, intending the 2015 nuclear agreement, and pledged to withdraw from the agreement, and pressure Iran to sign a new agreement if he reached the White House.
Attempts to pressure
Indeed, Trump withdrew in 2018 from the nuclear agreement, and the withdrawal came in contrast to the advice and perceptions of the American intelligence services that have repeatedly confirmed that the agreement was the best way to contain the Iranian threat. Washington sought to hold a new deal, resorted to following the policy of maximum pressure, and Tehran did not fulfill the call to negotiation again.
Washington and Tehran’s relations were strained during the first period of Trump, where oil tankers attacked the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, and another Emirati and Norwegian near the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump has faced a dilemma that represented one of its dimensions in his desire to appear as a strong president capable of making important decisions when necessary, but he also maintained his pledges that Washington was not involved in any new Middle Eastern wars, especially with his constant demand for the return of the American forces to the homeland, and Washington did not respond to Tehran’s attacks on Aramco facilities.
He also adopted an average balanced approach and resorted to the middle alternative, meaning not to start a traditional war and only carry out electronic attacks or impose more economic and diplomatic sanctions as long as American victims did not fall as a result of Iran’s attacks.
Trump later stated that he had ordered the suspension of planes to bomb targets inside Iran after the leading Tehran was shot down in the Persian Gulf, for fear of large numbers of Iranian victims.
Washington – during Trump’s first rule, and Joe Biden’s referee after him – became speaking one voice on this issue, and its shortness is to “ensure that Iran does not have a path that leads to its nuclear weapon, neither now, nor at any time at all.”
Edge and calm
The escalation between Tehran and Washington reached its maximum stages at the beginning of 2020 with the liquidation of General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces, outside the Baghdad airport on January 3, 2020.
Trump took advantage of Soleimani’s liquidation to appear as a strong leader, and with a great symbolism, he entered the Eastern Chamber in the White House to deliver a speech that he was waiting for with the passion of the American and Iranian people, and followed them with the interest and anticipation of global capitals, after Iran attacking Iraqi military bases that include thousands of American soldiers.
The US President affirmed that there were no losses in the ranks of his soldiers and the Iraqi military bases that were subjected to an Iranian missile strike in response to the killing of Soleimani.
For its part, Tehran achieved the shelling it wanted, as it told Iraq in the beginning that it would send a missile strike, and conveyed a message in this sense to Washington. That is why the American or Iraqi victims did not fall, which Iran did not return to the lack of a justification for Trump to strike, and a message to reduce the escalation.
NATO Arabic
On the other hand, Trump did not hesitate during the Riyadh summit in May 2017 to demand Arab and Islamic countries to confront Iranian threats.
During his speech before the United Nations General Assembly meetings in 2019, Trump revealed that his country is working with its partners in the Arab region to form a regional strategic alliance, and said, “America is working with the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Jordan and Egypt to form a regional strategic alliance so that the Middle East countries can push prosperity, stability and security throughout its region.”
He did not address the details of this alliance, its mechanisms or nature, but he referred to Iran describing its regime as “corrupt dictatorship.” “Iranian leaders planted the seeds of chaos, death and destruction, they do not respect their neighbors or their borders, nor the rights of sovereignty for countries.”
Trump also criticized – during the Federation’s case 2019 letter – his country recorded in the Middle East issues, noting that it was “fighting in the region almost 19 years ago, where about 7,000 American soldiers and nearly 52,000 wounded and disabled were killed, and a cost of 7 trillion dollars.”
At the same time, Washington’s vision of Iran included the existence of about 35,000 American soldiers in the Gulf states almost permanently, and they are distributed in several military bases, including many air in Qatar, maritime support in Bahrain, Al -Hufara air in the Emirates, and Al -Rafjan camp in Kuwait.
Trump did not change the situation of these forces, and the idea of the Arab NATO went to the winds.
New vision
As he returned to the White House last January, Trump repeated that the Hamas attack on Israel would not have spoken if he was president, as he succeeded in bankrupt Iran and stopped its financial support for its regional allies, including Hamas.
Between January and April this year, the US President took a series of measures to force Iran to negotiate a new nuclear agreement, waving military escalation when necessary.
Last February, Trump signed a presidential memorandum of national security that brought back a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, by denying it the capabilities necessary to develop a nuclear or missile program, in addition to imposing strict economic sanctions on Tehran, including targeting its oil exports.
In contrast, Trump was involved in a diplomat, and in March 2025 sent letters to the Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, urging negotiating a new nuclear agreement to replace the 2015 agreement from which Trump withdrew in 2018, and stressed his preference for diplomacy, warning of possible military action if negotiations fail.
Initially, Iran rejected the initiative, but later agreed to hold indirect talks by Oman, and has already held 5 rounds, in which America represented Trump’s friend and his Middle East envoy Steve Witkev.
In conjunction with the negotiating path, Trump used to constantly threaten the military force to pressure Iran, and warned it against the bombing of “it has not seen before” if it did not conclude a deal.
After attacking Israel, Iranian targets at the dawn of June 13, the destruction of parts of Iranian nuclear and military installations, and the killing of many military officials and nuclear scientists, Trump praised the Israeli operation and described it as “excellent” and “very successful”, stressing that Israel has “the best and most deadly military equipment anywhere in the world.”
Trump reiterated his belief that Iran should “conclude an agreement now” on its nuclear program to avoid a greater escalation, and warned it not to conclude a nuclear agreement “before nothing remains,” noting that the escalation of military action is necessary if necessary.