Iran War Special Update III: 2025.06.17
Welcome to EPM, where today the focus on the US – Israel Alliance’s War on Iran.
US president Trump departed the G7 meeting in Canada early as the conflict between Israel and Iran shows signs of intensifying, writes the Associated Press. As Trump posed for a picture Monday evening with the other G7 leaders, he said simply, “I have to be back, very important.”
The US president then declared that Tehran should be evacuated “immediately”, effectively echoing an Israeli evacuation warning for the 330,000 people living in a part of central Tehran that houses the country’s state TV and police headquarters, as well as three large hospitals, including one owned by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, writes the Associated Press. EPM notes this is further evidence that our original assessment that the US and Israel have been working this war on Iran in tandem from the very start.
Additional evidence that the US – Israel Alliance is preparing (or at the very least threatening) further escalation is the deployment of additional US military assets in the Middle East and Europe. The Washington Post writes that more than two dozen tanker aircraft were deployed from the United States to Europe on Sunday and Monday. The Navy, meanwhile, has canceled a port visit to Vietnam for the USS Nimitz, and redeploying the carrier group to the Middle East.
EPM observes that the above supports the view that the US – Israel Alliance is creating the conditions to bring Iran to its knees. One interpretation is that the US will shortly enter the war to deliver the “coup de grace”: total destruction of its underground nuclear facilities through deployment of the US’s “bunker buster bombs”. Formally called the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or the GBU- 57, this weapon is 200 feet long and requires a B-52 bomber to be delivered. Israel has neither of these, notes the Times of India, which adds that rumours are going round that following his G7 meeting trump joined a meeting of his National security Council to decide whether or not to attack Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility.
The report by Reuters that Israel is refusing Russian mediation to achieve a ceasefire, adds support to this analysis.
EPM notes that there is an alternative point of view. This view holds that the US – Israel Alliance is seeking escalation because the war is not going in its favour. Iran continues to hit back in what appears to be a significant manner. Earlier EPM reported on its strikes against the refining and petrochemical facilities in the Israeli port city of Haifa. The Craddle has released video images of Iranian rockets hitting the Glilot base near Tel Aviv which houses the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad and Unit 8200 intelligence services.
This could also be the reason for the threat of escalation that comes across in Western media reports. Amongst these reports, namely, is the thread that the US is simultaneously discussing the possibility of a meeting this week between US envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, writes Axios. The objective of the meeting would be to discuss a diplomatic initiative involving a nuclear deal and an end to the war between Israel and Iran.
In the proverbial “fog of war”, for “outside analysts” it is very difficult to conclude, with any degree of certainty, which of these two viewpoints may be right. We hope our EPM readers will bear this in mind.
What is clear in the EPM viewpoint, however, is that the US – Israel Alliance, along with the West in general, which appears to support the alliance unconditionally, may accelerate the beginning of a domestic “structural political crisis”. Reuters writes that the G7 issued a statement which expresses support for Israel and labels Iran as a source of instability:
We affirm that Israel has a right to defend itself. We reiterate our support for the security of Israel. Iran is the principal source of regional instability and terror.
EPM observes that his would be hilarious if the subject weren’t so serious. Over the past 18 months, Israel has committed genocide in Gaza; subjected the West Bank to a siege; bombed Lebanon, before and after agreeing to a ceasefire; bombed Syria without justification; bombed Yemen because of its support for the people of Gaza; and, most recently launched an unprovoked attack on Iran while it was negotiating with the US to find a diplomatic solution for the issues between them. Yet, the G7 confidently declares Iran is the source of instability, not Israel (or the US)?
Additionally, Israel has refused to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, it has a secret nuclear program and has manufactured a rumored 100 to 200 nuclear warheads, and actively prevents IAEA inspectors from inspecting its nuclear facilities. Yet, the G7 declares that Iran is a nuclear danger, not Israel? EPM calls out this hypocrisy because it is undermining the level of trust western societies have in their politicians and political systems. The hypocrisy is so blatantly obvious, that no amount of “spin” and “narrative control” has been able to prevent Western populations from seeing it. And this, we note, is the reason the trust gap between the Western politicians and their populations is very clearly widening.