During the early morning hours of June 13, 2025, Israel carried out a surprise attack on Iran, striking nuclear and military facilities. Shortly afterwards, Iran retaliated[1] by firing hundreds of missiles, with another wave of strikes on June 14th. The United States — obviously on the side of Israel — further escalated the tensions between the two by striking three of Iran’s nuclear facilities on June 22nd, claiming that these were done in order to stop Iran from gaining capacity to enrich uranium and thus create nuclear weapons. While the U.S. was quick to declare “victory” and “peace” because the alleged nuclear program was “obliterated” and “set back by two years”, Iran continues to unequivocally deny that it has a nuclear weapons program[2], as well as claiming that the damage done to these sites is not nearly as serious as the Trump administration claims. CNN, despite being a U.S. imperialist media outlet, corroborated this in a report which assessed that the U.S. military strikes did not actually destroy the core components of Iran’s nuclear program — if it even exists at all — and only set it back by months.[3]
To be clear, there is no evidence that Iran has a nuclear weapons program; but it does have a civilian nuclear energy program which serves no military purpose. However, if the Iranian government wanted to, it could convert that nuclear energy program into a militarized weapons program in the future[4] since they already have the required material resources they can easily access domestically, the necessary equipment (which, in particular, can also be used to enrich uranium[5] for nuclear weapons), and advisory personnel with the needed scientific background. Even though it is undoubtedly true that Iran does not have these weapons and does not plan on building them any time soon (with Khamenei even calling it “haraam”[6] to build them), and while the Iranian military has shown that they are fully capable of effectively engaging in combat against Israel, it is still a mistake that they avoid making nuclear weapons development a priority. If they had a nuclear deterrent, these most recent incidents probably would not have happened. As discussed before,[7] it is objectively advantageous to have nuclear weapons as deterrents in a world dominated by capitalism, where there is always a struggle between competing powers and where the drive for war still exists. It is especially beneficial for Global South countries, who want to remain free from Washington’s control, to have a credible means of self-defense because nuclear weapons are probably the only reliable means within their grasp. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), for example, has thus far managed to avoid being militarily attacked or invaded for several years now, as well as avoiding recolonization thanks to their nuclear weapons program — which began in the 1960’s, with the first construction of weapons starting in the 1980’s. This is an arguably impressive feat for a small nation that was literally burned to the ground by the U.S. during 1950-1953, which no longer has the Soviet Union to turn to for a major socialist ally, and is often targeted for sanctions; not to mention, the Korean People’s Army (KPA) is unable to compete with the U.S. military in terms of budget, resources, and scale.[8] Iran would do well to follow their example. As a matter of fact, several years before these recent attacks on Iran, Israel at the behest of the United States made considerable efforts to preemptively deter Iran from being able to develop such weapons by assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists — despite the fact that the use of their scientific work was limited to only nuclear energy generation. Israel had also worked with the United States during the early years of the Obama administration to conduct cyber attacks on Iran as part of the effort to deter them from building nuclear weapons, as well as threatening to air-strike the nuclear sites (again, despite the fact that these are nuclear energy sites).[9] Therefore, the June 22nd strikes on the three Iranian nuclear sites is not the first time that the U.S. has attempted to prevent the potential for Iran to develop nuclear weapon capabilities. The event is also one of several acts of war that the U.S. has committed against Iran over the years, which includes economic sanctions. Even without the “bull in a China shop”-approach and diplomatic incompetency of Donald Trump, Washington was always aware that the threat to U.S. investor’s interests would significantly increase in the Persian Gulf if Iran were to have nuclear weapons.
While Iran has not always been on the right side of history, nor is it what we would call a model society, and regardless of what one may think of them (there is no such thing as “the perfect victim”), it should be kept in mind that these recent acts of aggression perpetrated by the U.S. and Israel — which cannot be justified in principle — are a reflection of that global imperialist crisis that will do whatever it can to subordinate independent powers in the Middle East, of which Iran continually refuses to give into. It should already be fairly obvious that neither Israel nor the United States are interested in improving living conditions, let alone ushering in a socialist revolution. Whatever its faults are or not, Iran itself is still not “the threat to world peace” that U.S. and Zionist propagandists claim it to be; it should be fairly obvious to those who identify as Marxists that it is capitalism that ultimately is — never mind that true world peace is extremely difficult if not impossible to achieve under a capitalist-dominated world. We should also remember that Israel is the United States’ (and previously Europe’s) aggressive geostrategic foothold, attack dog, and proxy force in the Middle East which, much like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and U.S.-backed Islamist insurgents, was always intended to wage war against anti-colonial resistance movements and anyone who dares to oppose Western interests in the region. And because it carries out and protects U.S. interests, it should be stressed once again that, while it is indeed correct to oppose Zionism, it would be wrong to say that Israel “controls” the U.S. and U.S. policy. It is especially bizarre that there are still Trump supporters in America and other parts of the world who claim that Trump is “the anti-war” or “the anti-imperialist” candidate, and even going as far as to rationalize these recent events as results of ‘the Israel lobby’ and/or “the deep state” having “dragged Trump into this.” On the other hand, there are also liberals both inside and outside of the U.S. who claim that none of this would have happened if a Democratic candidate such as Kamala Harris had simply been voted into office. Yes, as we’ve already said, it is true that each side represents different factions within the capitalist class whose interests often clash; but they do share virtually the same foreign policies — they just disagree on how best to carry out imperialism.[10] More importantly, what these arguments, which seem to heavily fixate on individual voting habits during bourgeois elections, show is the lack of understanding of how imperialism comes about.
Although it has been over a month since Israel first carried out its surprise attack, it is still uncertain how the conflict will escalate further, or if it could lead to anything bigger militarily. At the time of this writing, it is still premature to definitively declare that we are on the brink of World War III. Regardless, this is yet another symptom of the global imperialist crisis under capitalism where there is always a fight for markets, resources, and geo-strategic interests. As mentioned above, there was indeed a point in destroying the aforementioned nuclear sites, and so it’s not enough to just simply say that “Israel and the United States should not have attacked Iran because they don’t have nuclear weapons.” While most likely unintentional, such an argument would imply that if Iran did actually have nuclear weapons, then those attacks would have been justified. Those attacks are not justifiable regardless of whether or not the weapons existed; but at the same time, it should also be reiterated that if Iran were to build nuclear deterrents, then it is not something that should be condemned.
All communists and anyone who seriously considers themselves anti-imperialists should have condemned Israel’s and the United States’ attacks on Iran, and acknowledge that Iran has the right to defend itself. And as always, we must continue to call for the end of the apartheid state of Israel and its genocidal occupation of Palestine, and support a democratic one state solution. A lasting peace and stability in the Middle East requires a massive social and political transformation of the region. But even more importantly, the roots of all these wars and of oppression can only be eliminated through socialist revolutions around the world, abolishing capitalism, and striving for a communist world where the division of humanity along class and national lines will finally come to an end.
- NBC News (2025, June 14). Iran fires missiles at Israel in escalating conflict over nuclear site attacks. NBC News. Retrieved from: https://www.nbcnews.com/world/iran/live-blog/israel-strikes-iran-middle-east-conflict-live-updates-rcna212727?canonicalCard=true
- Al Jazeera Staff (2023, July 2025). ‘Wipe it out faster’: Trump again threatens Iran over nuclear enrichment. Al Jazeera. Retrieved from: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/28/wipe-it-out-faster-trump-again-threatens-iran-over-nuclear-enrichment
- Reuters (2025, June 24). Early US assessment suggests strikes on Iran did not destroy nuclear sites, CNN reports. Retrieved from: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/early-us-intel-assessment-suggests-strikes-iran-did-not-destroy-nuclear-sites-2025-06-24/
- Gowans, Stephen (2019). Israel, A Beachhead In the Middle East: From European Colony to US Power Projection Platform. p. 192. Baraka Books.
- Ghosh, Padmaparna (2022, January 5). Nuclear Power 101. Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
- Khamenei, Ali (2010, April 17). Prohibition of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Official Website of Ayatollah Khamenei. Khamenei stated: “We believe that besides nuclear weapons, other types of weapons of mass destruction such as chemical and biological weapons also pose a serious threat to humanity. The Iranian nation which is itself a victim of chemical weapons feels more than any other nation the danger that is caused by the production and stockpiling of such weapons and is prepared to make use of all its facilities to counter such threats. We consider the use of such weapons as haraam and believe that it is everyone’s duty to make efforts to secure humanity against this great disaster.” [Original statement written in Farsi]. (Archived from the original 2015, July 8). Retrieved from: https://web.archive.org/web/20150708040618/http://farsi.khamenei.ir/treatise-content?id=228#2790.
- Velina, Janelle (2023, May 23). The Paradox of ‘Anti-War’ Capitalism: Peace Movements, Disarmament, and the War in Ukraine. LLCO.org. Retrieved from: https://llco.org/the-paradox-of-anti-war-capitalism-peace-movements-disarmament-and-the-war-in-ukraine/
- Velina, Janelle (2021, April 27). The DPRK, Nuclear Weapons, and ‘Morality’. LLCO.org. Retrieved from: https://llco.org/the-dprk-nuclear-weapons-and-morality/
- Gowans (2019), pp. 192-199.
- Velina, 2023, May 23.
Featured image: Alikhani, Mohammadjavad. Israeli attack on Tehran on 13 June 2025. MEHR News Agency. Source: https://www.mehrnews.com/photo/6497727
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