Twelve days in June
Published 4 October 2026
Congress's research arm put the opening in one sentence. On Friday, 13 June 2025 Israel began a major military operation against Iran, including air strikes and reported covert action, and Iran retaliated with waves of ballistic missiles against Israel. The Library of Congress analysts noted that Israel had procured most of its fighter aircraft and large munitions from American suppliers, financed by nearly $4 billion a year in American aid. They also recorded the background that explains the timing: after direct Israel-Iran clashes in April and October 2024 and Israel's large-scale degradation of Hezbollah, Israeli leaders had reportedly explored plans to strike Iran's nuclear program, including with American officials, amid increasingly public discussion inside Iran of the once-taboo subject of weaponization.
Israeli attacks hit military, government and energy targets, and killed a number of senior officials and nuclear scientists, according to the CRS summary. Reports indicated that Israel may have destroyed a significant portion of Iran's ballistic missile launchers. The BBC's account adds a detail from the first weekend: on Sunday, 15 June Israel struck the Sharan oil depot near Tehran, one of its energy targets. Netanyahu said during the conflict that regime change was a possible outcome, and Israel reportedly considered targeting Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
The Sunday night strike
On Sunday, 22 June the United States struck three Iranian nuclear sites, including the deep underground enrichment facility at Fordow. The weapons were GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators carried by B-2 bombers, and in its notification to Congress the White House said the strike was "consistent with the War Powers Resolution" and taken in collective self-defense of Israel. It was the first time the United States had directly struck Iranian soil, according to Britannica. In a speech Donald Trump said Iran's key enrichment facilities had been "completely and totally obliterated."
The assessments were more careful than the speech. CIA Director John Ratcliffe said some intelligence indicated several key facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over years. An Iranian official said the installations were badly damaged. The IAEA director general said very significant damage was expected at Fordow. The CRS note adds what no one knew: the whereabouts of Iran's uranium stockpiles appeared uncertain, and it was unclear how the strikes had affected Iran's technical capabilities or its political decision-making about weaponization. Hold on to that sentence. It is the question the 2026 war inherited.
Twenty-four hours to a ceasefire
The BBC reconstructed the next day by the clock. On Monday, 23 June the American government told its citizens in Qatar to shelter in place. In the evening Qatar closed its airspace, passenger planes turned back, and the BBC learned of a "credible threat" to the al-Udeid air base, the sprawling installation outside Doha where American air operations in the region are directed. Explosions were heard over Doha. Iran's revolutionary guards said US bases in the region were "not strengths but vulnerabilities." Qatar called it "brazen aggression" and confirmed the missiles were intercepted. The base had been evacuated before the attack, and nobody was killed or injured.
The supreme leader's account posted a picture of missiles raining on a base, then a line that undid it: "We didn't harm anyone." The BBC's reading, shared by outside analysts it quoted, was that the strike looked designed to let Iran's leaders save face without risking a direct war with a far more powerful adversary. Trump called it "weak" and "expected," thanked Iran "for giving us early notice," and wrote that "it's time for peace."
The deal itself was assembled overnight. The BBC reports that Trump spoke privately to Netanyahu, while Vice President JD Vance and envoy Steve Witkoff reached Iranians directly and through backchannels, with Qatar involved. Just after 11 p.m. London time, Trump announced a "complete and total ceasefire," with a six-hour grace period for "in progress, final missions." He said the conflict should be known as "the 12 Day War."
It nearly came apart at the start. In less than an hour on Tuesday, 24 June, Israel said Iran launched three waves of missiles, with more to follow. In Beersheba a missile tore through a multistorey residential building and killed four people, at least three of whom were sheltering in a safe room. Both sides then indicated they would comply, reserving the right to defend themselves. Trump said another strike could follow if Iran resumed enrichment. CRS reported that attacks by both countries had reportedly killed over 600 people in Iran and 29 in Israel. As with every casualty figure in this file, those numbers are reported counts as of that date, not final totals.
The brakes come off the old deal
With the shooting paused, the diplomatic clock restarted. In July 2025, the E3 say, they offered Iran a limited, one-time extension of the snapback deadline in exchange for resuming direct talks with the United States, returning to its legally binding safeguards obligations and addressing its high-enriched uranium stockpile. They say Iran did not engage seriously. On Thursday, 28 August, France, Germany and the United Kingdom triggered the snapback mechanism, which began a 30-day process.
The E3 statement lists what they say they found. The IAEA's 4 September report, they wrote, showed Iran holding enriched uranium at 48 times the 2015 limit, with its stockpile entirely outside agency monitoring. That included what the E3 called ten "significant quantities" of high-enriched uranium. They also say Iran had not allowed inspectors back into its sites. On Friday, 19 September the Security Council voted on a resolution that would have continued sanctions relief, and it failed. At 8 p.m. Eastern on Saturday, 27 September, six earlier Security Council resolutions came back into force, from 1696 in 2006 through 1929 in 2010. The E3 said the move was "not the end of diplomacy".
That is where the long peace stopped. Within three months protesters were in the streets of Iranian cities, and in the first days of the new year the country's economy and its politics were both under pressure. The story of 2026 picks up on 28 February. The history above is why neither side treated it as a surprise.
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