The joint US-Israeli combat operation against Iran, and the killing of its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is a watershed moment in the US-Iran relationship. Bilateral interactions have been tense since 1979 when a revolution ousted Iran’s pro-American Shah, Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, and replaced him with an Islamic theocracy opposed to the US.
However, these tensions have now bubbled over into direct conflict. The US and Israel have bombed Iranian cities, which Tehran has responded to by launching strikes across the region. Hostilities have now spread to Lebanon, with the Iran-backed Hezbollah group launching missiles and drones towards Israel in retaliation for Khamenei’s killing.
