March 5—Thirty-four years ago, in January 1992, then Israeli Knesset member Benjamin Netanyahu stated in a speech to the Knesset that Iran was “three to five years” away from becoming autonomous in nuclear bomb development. Since that time, this announcement has been repeated at regular intervals by Israeli officials, and their collaborators in the United States have treated each iteration as if it were a startling new revelation.

Neocon buffoon U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas took this thinking to its logical extreme on March 3, 2026, when he tweeted, “Iran has been an imminent threat to the United States for 47 years.”

The issue of Iran’s nuclear enrichment program has repeatedly become an issue in international relations. Beyond the ever-popular allegation that the program is intended to produce a nuclear weapon, there is also the question of what came to be called “technological apartheid” in the early 2000s: the practice of denying advanced technologies to nations of the Global South, in order to thwart their development and restrict them to the status of economic vassal states, to be looted by the developed North. For their part, Iranian officials have recently used the enrichment issue as a bargaining chip when trying to extract concessions from the hostile governments in the Anglosphere.

Recent history has taught us that Israeli governments and U.S. neocons alike will dependably lie to manufacture consent for wars of choice.

Here we present a timeline of what is actually known about the genesis of the U.S. President Donald Trump administration’s war on Iran, along with some background.

20th Century

1901

The D’Arcy Concession had granted British investors exclusive rights to Iranian oil exploration, leading to the creation of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (later BP). Unlike its neighbors to the west and east, Iran was never formally conquered by the British Empire. But the D’Arcy Concession signified the Empire’s economic and political dominance.

1921

In order to maintain control over Iran, Britain pursued a long-range policy of orchestrating regular coups, to destabilize the nation and to suppress its national development. One example is the 1921 coup that brought Reza Shah Pahlavi to power on the throne of Iran.

1941

The British government replaced the Shah with his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in order to have a more cooperative figurehead.

1953

Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service MI-6, with the CIA as junior partner, carried out a coup against Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, under the joint operation known as Operation Boot (by British intelligence) and Operation Ajax (by the CIA). Motivation for British involvement stemmed in part from Mossadegh’s 1951 decision to nationalize Iran’s oil industry.

Sir Francis Shepherd, Britain’s ambassador in Tehran, was quoted as saying,

[It is] so important to prevent the Persians from destroying their main source of revenue … by trying to run it themselves.

1979

The British were concerned that the younger Shah, who had consolidated power with the coup in 1953, was placing too much emphasis on modernization of Iran’s economy, which threatened to make that nation economically independent and no longer a de facto colony. The BBC began to broadcast the Ayatollah Khomeini’s speeches into Iran, and took other measures to prepare the way for a regime change in the form of the Islamic Revolution. A popular joke among Iranians was that if you peek beneath the mullah’s robe, it says “Made in England.”

The new Islamicist government had not forgotten the supporting role of the United States in the 1953 coup. After the deposed Shah was brought to America for medical treatment, militants took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, starting a hostage crisis which lasted for 444 days. President Jimmy Carter issued Executive Order 12170, which froze approximately $8.1 billion in Iranian assets and imposed a trade embargo.

1984

January: Iran was designated a state sponsor of terrorism, triggering sweeping sanctions.

1987

October: An embargo on Iranian goods and services was implemented.

1988

April: The U.S. military launched Operation Praying Mantis—an assault on Iranian naval vessels, planes, and oil platforms—in retaliation for Iranian mining of the Persian Gulf during the eight-year Iran-Iraq War.

July: During the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88, the U.S. Navy shot down Iran Air Flight 655, killing all 290 passengers and crew on board. The Navy claimed to have misidentified the aircraft as an F-14 Tomcat, a U.S.-made fighter jet which was part of Iran’s inventory, despite Flight 655 having transmitted civilian identification codes.

1992

The Islamicist government had initially taken a rather medieval position against the implementation of modern technologies, but this began to change under the administration of President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, which built Iran’s first internet infrastructure. Interest in all areas of science and technology began to increase.

1996

The United States, under the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act (1996), imposed a full embargo against investing and trading with Iran, including targeting of foreign firms in the energy sector.

21st Century

2000

September: Iran, Russia, and India founded the International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC), after which construction was launched on key rail, road, and other links. India and Iran proceeded to build up the seaport of Chabahar as a major new intercontinental trade hub.

2004

February: During the President George W. Bush Administration, the U.S. Department of the Treasury ruled against editing or publishing scientific manuscripts from Iran, and stated that the American scientists collaborating with Iranians could be prosecuted.

2008

MI6 launched a campaign to convince the world that Iran was embarking on a quest to develop nuclear weapons. Investigative journalist Kit Klarenberg reported:

The grim truth is Iran’s alleged nuclear desires are a fable, cooked up by British intelligence.… A leaked CV of Nicholas Langman, longtime British intelligence dark-arts specialist and head of MI6’s Iran Department 2006-2008, boasted of how he “generated confidence” among “European, U.S. and Middle Eastern agencies,” in its [the MI6—ed] assessment that Tehran had a secret, dedicated program to develop nuclear weapons.

Then from 2010-2012, Langman led an “inter-agency” effort, comprehensively to infiltrate the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency], while “[building] highly effective and mutually supportive relations across government and with senior U.S., European, Middle and Far Eastern colleagues for strategy.”

Britain’s central, clandestine role in corralling global public and political opinion behind the fraud that Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons capabilities, has never been acknowledged by the mainstream media.

2015

July: The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was ratified by the UN Security Council. It imposed strict limits on Iran’s nuclear activities, and imposed intrusive inspections, in return for the lifting of UN economic and other sanctions on Iran.

2016

January: The JCPOA went into effect; UN sanctions were lifted according to the terms of the Agreement.

2017

July: U.S. President Trump certified that Iran was in compliance with the JCPOA, but according to press reports, was reluctant to do so, even though at that point, the International Atomic Energy Agency had issued six reports finding that Iran was in full compliance with the agreement. Trump, in a July 25 interview with the Wall Street Journal, expressed an intention to decertify Iran’s compliance with the JCPOA when the next review occurred 90 days later, but he provided no evidence that Iran was not in compliance, nor did the Journal’s interviewer ask him for any.

“I think they’ll be noncompliant,” Trump said. “I think they’re taking advantage of this country.”

The New York Times’ David Sanger reported on July 27:

President Trump, frustrated that his national security aides have not given him any options on how the United States can leave the Iran nuclear deal, has instructed them to find a rationale for declaring that the country is violating the terms of the accord.

American officials have already told allies they should be prepared to join in reopening negotiations with Iran or expect that the United States may abandon the agreement, as it did the Paris Climate Accord. And according to several foreign officials, the United States has begun raising with international inspectors in Vienna, the possibility of demanding access to military sites in Iran where there is reasonable suspicion of nuclear research or development.

If the Iranians balk, as seems likely, their refusal could enable Washington to declare Tehran in violation of the two-year-old deal.

August: Nikki Haley, America’s UN ambassador, lobbied the IAEA to demand that it be allowed to inspect undeclared Iranian military sites, despite knowing that Iran would never allow that.

September: Barbara Opall-Rome wrote in :

A top Israeli general tasked with writing his country’s new defense policy said Israel must prepare for direct confrontation with Iran, and is counting on U.S. support in order to prevail against the Islamic Republic.

“We cannot fight Iran alone,” Maj. Gen. Yair Golan, a candidate to become the next Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, told a Sept. 7 think-tank gathering here…. They are a higher form of civilization. They have nice, academic infrastructure, impressive industry, good scientists and many talented young people. They are very similar to us, and because they are similar to us, they are much, much more dangerous. And we can’t cope with them alone.”

October: Trump refused to certify Iran’s compliance with the JCPOA, even though Iran was complying with all terms of the agreement. Just four weeks earlier, the IAEA had found Iran in compliance for the eighth time.

2018

March: The neocon faction secured a dominant position in the Trump Administration. Mike Pompeo replaced Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State. Pompeo had a close relationship with leading neocon Mark Dubowitz, head of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

John Bolton came in as National Security Advisor. Bolton had been calling for ripping up the JCPOA, both publicly and in phone calls to the White House, some of which Bolton was reported to have made from Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas mansion.

May: Trump announced America’s withdrawal from the JCPOA, based on claims made by then Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that Iran had lied about its nuclear program. Trump said that he would be signing an executive order reimposing all of the U.S. sanctions that were waived as a result of the deal, to include secondary sanctions on third countries deemed to be helping, not only Iran’s nuclear program, but also its ballistic missile program and its alleged support of terrorism.

2020

January: The United States assassinated Qassem Soleimani, commander of the IRGC Quds Force, after he had arrived in Baghdad on a flight from Syria. Soleimani had been coordinating the IRGC’s support to Iraqi militias fighting the ISIS terrorist organization. He was known to be the most effective leader against ISIS throughout the entire multi-nation region.

December: The Iranian parliament approved a bill on “strategic action” to force the lifting of U.S. sanctions. The bill, among other things, mandated the AEOI (Atomic Energy Organization of Iran) to increase rates of uranium enrichment to 120 kg of 20% uranium-235 [U-235, the fissile isotope], to stockpile 500 kg of LEU (low-enriched uranium), and to stop allowing IAEA inspections outside the additional protocol.

2021

February: Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei delivered a speech to the Assembly of Experts in which he not only expressed support for the parliamentary strategic action bill, but also said, “There is the possibility of increasing enrichment up to 60% [U-235] in accordance with the country’s needs.”

March: In his March 5 address to the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iranian envoy in Vienna, Kazem Gharibabadi, said:

The JCPOA is a deal containing a balanced combination of rights and obligations, and if the balance is damaged, all elements of the deal would be impacted.

But a particular feature of Gharibabadi’s statement was his attack on Israel for using the IAEA to attack Iran’s nuclear program while maintaining a clandestine program of its own, not subject to any kind of safeguards monitoring, clearly in contrast to Iran’s relationship to the IAEA:

It is a clear contradiction that Israel as a non-member to the NPT [Non-Proliferation Treaty] is enjoying the full rights and privileges due to its membership to the IAEA, while at the same time, it considers itself free from any responsibility, and participates in all deliberations of the Agency related to members of the NPT….

Most importantly, this regime has become so cynically bold as to manipulate the realities, and criticize other Members of the NPT on the account that they have obligations due to their membership in the Treaty, but Israel has not. This is a very serious shortcoming and failure in the work of the Agency, which should be addressed properly.

April: On April 10, Iran announced the installation of advanced centrifuges at the Natanz enrichment facility. The next day, Israel sabotaged the plant, either by planted explosives or cyberattack. On April 13, Iranian officials announced that Iran would begin enriching uranium to 60% U-235 immediately.

2024

January: Iran joined the BRICS as a full member, along with four other nations in the region, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Ethiopia. Over ensuing months, Iranian envoys conferred with BRICS nations on Iran serving as an economic bridge for agriculture and transportation between Eurasia, the Middle East, and Eastern Africa.

2025

June: On June 13, Israel launched a surprise attack against Iran, triggering what became known as the Twelve-Day War, using the justification that Iran was again on the cusp of producing a nuclear weapon. During the attack, Israel bombed military and nuclear facilities, and assassinated prominent military, scientific and political leaders. Iran retaliated with over 550 ballistic missiles and 1,000 suicide drones, inflicting heavy damage to Israeli military, energy and government facilities. On June 23, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that a ceasefire had been agreed to, and by the end of the next day fighting stopped.

On the night of June 21-22, the United States staged a bombing attack, called Operation Midnight Hammer, against three Iranian nuclear sites: Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. More than 125 U.S. aircraft were involved in the attack, including B-2 Spirit bombers utilizing GBU-57 “bunker buster” munitions to hit the sites. After the attack, President Trump boasted that all three sites were “totally obliterated,” a claim disputed by many military and strategic analysts.

December: Economic and financial tumult in Iran erupted due to outside intervention from the United States, the UK, and others, compounding the effects of years of sanctions and foreign financial warfare. There was a sharp plunge in the value of Iran’s currency and inflation in prices of basic goods soared. After demonstrations in Tehran, merchants and others conferred with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who pledged to “not spare any effort for solving problems” of the acknowledged difficulties.

2026

January: Demonstrations continued in Iran, with blatant involvement of foreign-coordinated interventions to cause maximum chaos and disruption. Former U.S. Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo wrote on X:

Happy New Year to every Iranian in the streets. Also to every Mossad agent walking beside them.

U.S. President Trump threatened to attack Iran, if Tehran harmed its demonstrating citizens. An international media campaign took off, with disinformation featuring claims of thousands of dead from Tehran government murder—reaching a claim of 30,000 fatalities carried, for example, by Time magazine. One of the chief propaganda agencies, however, eventually said these figures were false. On Feb. 15, Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA), based in the U.S., issued corrections, offering a number in the range of 6,500.

February: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Feb. 5 bragged to the Senate Banking Committee about the success of the United States’ economic warfare operations against Iran, from the combination of years of U.S. and other sanctions against the country, and from special operations over the past year—at least since April 2025.

Bessent said:

What we have done is create a dollar shortage in the country. It came to a swift and, I would say, grand culmination in December, when one of the largest banks in Iran [Ayandeh Bank] went under. There was a run on the bank. The central bank had to print money, the Iranian currency went into free fall, inflation exploded, and hence we have seen the Iranian people out on the street.

During February, the White House and the West reignited the scare of Iran building a nuclear weapon, despite the fact that on Feb.18, the IAEA’s director, Rafael Grossi, stated that there was no such indication. On Feb.18, President Trump nevertheless gave Iran 10 days to agree to the U.S. terms or “bad things will happen if it doesn’t.”

February 17: Khamenei declined to accept the nuclear peace agreement negotiating conditions set out by Trump’s ultimatum.

February 19: Trump says Iran had “the next, probably 10 days” to make the deal, which he later amended to “10, 15 days, pretty much maximum.”

February 26/27: A meeting between U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was scheduled for the next day’s negotiations, based upon an Iranian written proposed compromise.

February 28: The U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran began.