The Precursors for War are in Place. Iran is the Peg to Intense Political Jockeying to define the Post-Trump Future

Alastair Crooke, 31 Dec 2025

At the 30 December meeting with Netanyahu and his team, President Trump publicly committed to attacking Iran: If they continue with their ballistic missile program, ‘Yes’. And for their nuclear programme: ‘Immediate’. “We’ll knock the hell out of them“, Trump said.

By contrast to this belligerency, the Trump language at the Mar-a-Lago meeting reflected only warmth and fulsome praise for Netanyahu and Israel. Publicly, Netanyahu received Trump’s public backing for an attack on Iran and for Gaza Phase Two, but behind the scenes, Anna Barsky writes (in Hebrew), many of the specifics remained undefined and disputed.

The escalatory language towards Iran was no surprise to Tehran. It had been expected. All the pointers toward coming hostilities are in plain sight: The escalating narrative — “hundreds of al-Qaida sleeper cells ready to unleash carnage; Al-Qaida found safe harbour in Iran for 25 years … [allowing Iran] to supercharge the spread of Islamic fundamentalism”, an ‘infiltrator for MI5 and MI6’ claims. On cue, the Iranian currency falls precipitously — and Iranians take to the streets.

What lies behind this outbreak of US-Israeli militarism? Trump’s bluster about ‘the gates of Hell’ opening to ‘whomsoever’ is familiar to us all now. Nonetheless the signs are that Trump and Netanyahu are aligned for another round of war.