Iran will respond to US-Israeli strikes as existential threats to the regime–because they are

A plume of smoke rises above Tehran on Feb. 28, 2026.
AFP via Getty Images
Javed Ali, University of Michigan

After U.S. and Israeli missiles struck Iran’s nuclear sites in June 2025, Tehran responded with a limited attack on the American airbase in Qatar. Five years before that, a U.S. drone strike against Qasem Soleimani, head of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, was met with followed by an attack on two American bases in Iraq shortly thereafter.