A major turning point in the Israel-Iran conflict

Summary

Post Reports: A Major Turning Point in the Israel-Iran Conflict Published on June 17, 2025 | Hosted by Martine Powers and Elahe Izadi

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I. Introduction to the Recent Escalation

On June 17, 2025, The Washington Post's daily podcast, Post Reports, delves into a significant escalation in the longstanding tension between Israel and Iran. The episode titled "A Major Turning Point in the Israel-Iran Conflict" features an in-depth conversation between host Elahe Izadi and Post reporter Yeganeh Turbati.

II. Israeli Strikes on Iran: Objectives and Execution

The conflict ignited when Israel launched direct strikes on Iran last Friday, targeting high-ranking officials and key military installations, particularly those related to Iran's nuclear program.

• Yeganeh Turbati details the scale of the operation:

  "Israel used approximately 200 warplanes, striking over 100 targets in at least 15 locations across the country using hundreds of bombs."
  [04:29]

The strikes focused on military bases and nuclear enrichment facilities, with collateral damage resulting in civilian casualties. Residential areas housing military officials and nuclear scientists were also hit, leading to unintended loss of innocent lives.

III. Impact on Iranian Civilians

The immediate aftermath of the strikes has had a profound effect on the Iranian populace, stirring a mix of emotions and responses.

• Initial Reaction of Hope Amid Repression:
  Post reporter Yeganeh Turbati shares insights from her conversations with Iranians, highlighting a man named Mehrdad from Bandar Abbas:

  "He was so tired of living under the Iranian government's repression and mismanagement that he initially welcomed these attacks."
  [00:55]

  Mehrdad expressed that the strikes momentarily lifted a decades-long sense of discontent:

  "So he's saying that he has not been as deeply happy as he is now in more than 10 years. When he woke up and saw the news, he felt joy and so did his family."
  [00:55]

• Growing Fear and Uncertainty:
  However, as the conflict persisted, sentiments shifted towards anxiety and fear for the future:

  "We are worried that this war is going to go on for a long time and we're worried for our fellow citizens… if our infrastructure were to be destroyed and this government were to stay in place, we'd be 100 years behind the rest of the world."
  [02:08]

The escalating strikes have led to mass evacuations in Tehran, with residents facing prolonged traffic jams and chaos as they attempt to flee the targeted areas.

IV. Iranian Retaliation and Its Effects on Israel

In response to Israeli aggression, Iran has launched a series of missile and drone attacks targeting Israeli cities.

• Scope of Iranian Attacks:

  "Iran has launched missiles and drones towards Israel in retaliation. It's hit Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv suburbs, the northern city of Haifa, where Israel has a major oil refinery."
  [08:22]

Despite the intensity, the civilian toll in Israel appears lower compared to Iran, with 24 fatalities and over 600 injuries reported:

"As far as we know, the Iranian strikes have managed to kill 24 people and injured hundreds more."
[08:22]

• Disparate Impact on Civilians:
  The difference in casualty rates is attributed to Israel's robust missile defense infrastructure, including widespread public bomb shelters, a system less prevalent in Iran:

  "You have a culture and like a system of sheltering in Israel because they've been the target of other missile attacks in Iran... if there are bunkers remaining in big cities, they are not widely accessible or there's not that many of them."
  [09:22]

V. Historical Context and Recent Escalations

Understanding the roots of this conflict is essential to grasp its current magnitude.

• Decades of Antagonism:
  The Islamic Republic of Iran, established in 1979, has long viewed Israel as an existential threat, a sentiment deeply embedded in its theocratic and authoritarian ideology. Conversely, Israel perceives Iran's policies as a direct threat to its national security:

  "Israel sees Iran under the Islamic Republic and its policies as effectively an existential threat."
  [10:35]

• Shift from Proxy Conflicts to Direct Confrontation:
  Historically, conflicts between Israel and Iran were manifested through proxy groups like Hezbollah and Hamas. However, recent actions signify a drastic shift towards direct and open hostilities:

  "Israel assassinated a top Hamas leader when he was staying in Tehran. Israel killed Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and Israel targeted a diplomatic compound of the Iranians in Syria."
  [11:20]

  These moves, combined with reciprocal Iranian strikes, indicate a significant escalation from covert operations to overt military confrontations.

VI. The United States' Complicated Role

As a pivotal ally to Israel and an adversary to Iran, the United States finds itself in a delicate position amidst the conflict.

• Ongoing Nuclear Negotiations:
  The Trump administration has been engaged in direct talks with Iran to strike a new nuclear deal, a process that was impacted by the timing of Israel's strikes:

  "There was a sixth round of talks that was supposed to happen on Sunday, two days after Israel started its attack."
  [17:54]

• Reluctance to Directly Involve:
  Despite its alliance with Israel, the U.S. administration is cautious about direct military involvement, balancing its desire for diplomatic resolution with the risks of further escalation:

  "President Trump has campaigned and has kind of cast himself as someone who does not want to start new wars... the White House and the administration kind of initially tried to sort of distance themselves from involvement."
  [19:54]

• Potential for Greater Escalation:
  The U.S. faces a critical decision point: whether to support Israel's actions further or push for diplomatic interventions to prevent a wider war:

  "If the US were to do that [attack an Iranian site], then does Iran retaliate against US Bases in the region... Does this conflict widen even further and just become like a much more violent and complicated war?"
  [19:54]

VII. Iran's Nuclear Program and International Concerns

Central to the conflict is Iran's nuclear ambitions, which Israel and several other nations view with skepticism.

• Iran's Stance:
  Tehran maintains that its nuclear program is purely for peaceful purposes, including medical and energy applications:

  "The Iranians say their program is peaceful… for medical purposes, for energy purposes."
  [16:34]

• International Skepticism:
  Despite Iran's assertions, international bodies like the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have expressed concerns over Iran's compliance with nuclear non-proliferation commitments:

  "Just before the attacks, the IAEA had said that Iran was not complying with its nuclear non-proliferation obligations."
  [05:04]

The withdrawal of the U.S. from the 2015 nuclear deal under President Trump further complicates efforts to contain Iran's nuclear developments:

"President Trump… pulled out of that deal."
[17:12]

VIII. Potential Consequences and Future Outlook

The current trajectory of the Israel-Iran conflict carries significant implications for regional and global stability.

• Risk of Widespread War:
  Experts like Yeganeh Turbati warn of the possibility of the conflict escalating into a full-scale war, with unpredictable outcomes:

  "We just can't know ahead of time how things are gonna end up… this could go on for days, more weeks, more."
  [24:04]

• Impact on the Iranian Regime:
  While some initially hoped that external pressure could catalyze change within Iran, skepticism remains about the regime's vulnerability to such attacks:

  "Iranians have a deep pessimism… about their own ability to change their government for the better."
  [22:28]

• Uncertain Leadership Transition:
  The potential targeting of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, raises questions about the future political landscape in Iran:

  "There's an open question and some chatter about could Israel attack and kill the Supreme Leader himself and then what would happen in that case?"
  [23:18]

IX. Conclusion and Current Developments

As the situation remains volatile, the United States continues to navigate its stance, balancing support for Israel with the imperative to avoid further escalation. President Trump's recent statements indicate a hardening stance against Iran, although the full extent of potential U.S. involvement remains uncertain.

Yeganeh Turbati emphasizes the unpredictable nature of the conflict's progression, underscoring the urgent need for diplomatic efforts to prevent a broader humanitarian and geopolitical crisis.

For ongoing coverage and detailed analysis, listeners are encouraged to follow Post Reports and visit washingtonpost.com.

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This summary captures the key discussions, insights, and conclusions from the Post Reports episode on the Israel-Iran conflict, providing a comprehensive overview for those who have not listened to the full episode.

Transcript

[Elahe Izadi]

On Friday, Israel launched direct strikes on Iran. These strikes killed top officials and hit military bases in some nuclear related sites. Post reporter Yeganeh Turbati has been covering Iran for years. So after these strikes, she immediately reached out to sources inside Iran to understand how people were feeling. She spoke to a man named Merdad. He lives in Bandar Abbas in southern Iran, and we're only using his first name to protect him from government reprisal. Mehrdad told her he was so tired of living under the Iranian government's repression and mismanagement that he initially welcomed these attacks.

[Yeganeh Turbati]

So he's saying there that he has not been as deeply happy as he is now in more than 10 years. When he woke up and saw the news, he felt joy and so did his family. And he's saying there that we don't have any fear. And we know that even if we get pulled into a big war that that implicates the people. It would still be better than the situation that we have now with this government.

[Elahe Izadi]

Given the Iranian government's repression, it can be difficult to gauge public opinion inside Iran. Reporting and conducting good opinion polls there is very difficult. But Yeganeh said she initially heard from a lot of Iranians who echoed Mehdad that they weren't too worried. But then by the fourth day of growing Israeli strikes and Iranian counterstrikes, Mehrdad's tone changed.

[Yeganeh Turbati]

So he says there that we are worried that this war is going to go on for a long time and we're worried for our fellow citizens. And he's saying there that my own worry is that God forbid, after this war, this same regime or government is still in place. He's saying as it is right now, we're already 50 years behind the rest of the world. And, and if our infrastructure were to be destroyed and this government were to stay in place, we'd be 100 years behind the rest of the world.

[Elahe Izadi]

Now many people in Iran's capital are desperately trying to flee. Iran said Israeli strikes have killed at least 224 people and wounded hundreds of others, but the officials haven't updated those numbers since Sunday. But human rights groups in the country also say those official figures are a significant undercount. Inside Israel, officials say at least 24 people have been killed and more than 600 injured by Iranian strikes. Meanwhile, the rest of the globe is anxiously watching. This is a fluid situation, and as we enter the fifth day of this conflict, there is no clear end in sight. From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post reports Eli I'm Elahei izadi. It's Tuesday, June 17th. Today I speak with the Post's Yegany Turbati about how we got here and why. These direct attacks between Israel and Iran are what so many have feared for decades. Hi, Yegane.

[Yeganeh Turbati]

Hi, Aloha.

[Elahe Izadi]

You and I were talking at 9am on Tuesday morning. What is the latest on what these attacks look like? Let's first start with Israel's attacks on Iran, which began last Friday. Where and what have they hit inside of Iran?

[Yeganeh Turbati]

So starting very early Friday morning, Tehran time, Israel began striking military bases. It struck nuclear enrichment facilities. It killed top military generals and nuclear scientists. It used approximately 200 warplanes, striking over 100 targets in at least 15 locations across the country using hundreds of bombs. And among some of those targets also were residential facilities where some of these scientists and military officials lived.

[Elahe Izadi]

And what reasoning did Israeli officials give at that time as to why they were launching these attacks?

[Yeganeh Turbati]

So their reasoning is that this is basically the last resort to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Iran's nuclear program has advanced in recent years, though it still hasn't actually produced an actual bomb as far as we know. And just before the attacks, the International Atomic Energy Agency had said that Iran was not complying with its nuclear non proliferation obligations.

[Elahe Izadi]

We heard earlier from one person inside of Iran. But I'm wondering if you could tell me more about how these strikes inside of Iran since Friday have impacted regular people throughout the country.

[Yeganeh Turbati]

Right. So I should say that even the Friday strikes did have civilian casualties. There were other people living in those residential buildings that the nuclear scientists and generals lived in, and they were not themselves government officials or often even connected to the government. But then even since Friday, we're seeing a wider set of targets that Israel is carrying out. So it's hitting major urban areas right in the center of them, including in Tehran, which is like a huge city.

[Elahe Izadi]

With like 10 million people living there.

[Yeganeh Turbati]

Huge city, millions of people. Yesterday, the Israeli government put out basically an evacuation order for a large portion of Tehran. People, you know, some of my sources, people I knew had to leave that area and were like trying to find safe havens somewhere else in the city and then eventually trying to get out of the city. We're seeing huge lines on the highways, like just immense traffic jams that have lasted for 11, 12, 15 hours. People trying to get out, staying in their cars for hours and hours, their cars breaking down, their cars not having enough fuel, having to leave them at the side of the road, just pretty Much chaos as people try to get, especially to the north of the city, to kind of the smaller towns and villages in Iran's north Yeganeh.

[Elahe Izadi]

Are these strikes, when we think of like the map of Iran, are they mostly hitting Tehran? Are they hitting targets all around the country? Are there people in other cities or towns worried that they could be hit totally?

[Yeganeh Turbati]

There was a strike in Mashad, which is in Iran's far northeast, which is very, very far inland into the country. And I believe one of the furthest in strikes that Israel has carried out, there have been strikes in and around Esfahan, sort of in central Iran, and then there's been strikes in western IR Iran as well. So it's not just Tehran where these have been concentrated, although many of them have occurred in and around Tehran. Israel struck the headquarters of state television, and we saw live on state television that happen and the news anchor react in real time. So it's going after now a set of targets that we don't know exactly what the military or even potentially nuclear component is. It's unclear. And in the meantime, it's really drastically affecting millions of people in terms of having to leave their homes, being hugely afraid of what might happen next, and then also getting injured and killed.

[Elahe Izadi]

So now tell me about Iran's strikes on Israel. What is the latest on what Iranian missiles and other weapons have hit and the impact that has had on Israelis?

[Yeganeh Turbati]

Right, so Iran has launched missiles and drones towards Israel in retaliation. It's hit Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv suburbs, the northern city of Haifa, where Israel has a major oil refinery. We're talking about hundreds of missiles and drones really trying to kind of overwhelm Israel's missile defense system. So far, as far as we know, the Iranian strikes have managed to kill 24 people and injured hundreds more. And Israel has accused Iran of trying to hit civilians in cities, but it's unclear whether they were targeting military infrastructure that may have been located next to, for instance, a residential building. Iran still has potentially hundreds of missiles that it can use to keep trying to strike Israel. It's firing many of them simultaneously to kind of overwhelm those defenses.

[Elahe Izadi]

So what explains the disparate impact on Iranian and Israeli civilian populations? I know that in Israel, for instance, it's very common for there to be public bomb shelters available to people. Is that part of the explanation here?

[Yeganeh Turbati]

I think that's part of it. I think that you do have a culture and like a system of sheltering in Israel because they've been the target of other missile attacks in Iran that has not been the case. Iran did have a war experience in the 1980s where sheltering was very common. But as far as I can tell, if there are bunkers remaining in big cities, they are not widely accessible or there's not that many of them. We had a senior Iranian Tehran city official say that we basically don't have adequate bunkers and bomb shelters in Tehran because this, like, had not been something that the government had focused on in the past. And also, I think a big element of this is that it appears that the Iranian government was completely taken by surprise with this attack. So just as the government was surprised, I think the civilian population has also been surprised and fairly defenseless.

[Elahe Izadi]

You know, I know that this is such a complex conflict between Israel and Iran, and I would like to talk a little bit about why this has become the outcome so many people feared. And to do that, it's helpful to know how we got here. So I know there's a long history here, but maybe just very briefly, can you describe how Israel and Iran have been positioned against each other over the decades?

[Yeganeh Turbati]

So the Islamic Republic of Iran was founded in 1979. It's a very theocratic, authoritarian form of government. Israel. And opposition to Israel is an enormous plank of the Islamic Republic's ideology. It's kind of woven through their ideology about themselves, what they believe that the Islamic Republic's purpose is. And Israel sees Iran under the Islamic Republic and its policies as effectively an existential threat.

[Elahe Izadi]

And just how has that ethos manifested in terms of how Iran has spent its money?

[Yeganeh Turbati]

Yeah, one way that this has shown up in Iran's policy is through funding proxy groups that oppose and fight Israel, including Hezbollah and Hamas.

[Elahe Izadi]

How has this relationship between Israel and Iran changed in recent years?

[Yeganeh Turbati]

Right, so in recent years, we've seen the two countries go from kind of this proxy slash, hidden war in the shadows. And I should say it's not just Iran targeting Israel through Hezbollah and Hamas. It's also Israel targeting what it sees as threats in Iran. So it has assassinated nuclear scientists, it has tried to sabotage Iran's nuclear program, but all kind of in the shadows, not in kind of this direct, open way. And that dynamic kind of started to shift really last year. So Israel assassinated a top Hamas leader when he was staying in Tehran. Israel killed Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and Israel targeted a diplomatic compound of the Iranians in Syria. And in return, Iran responded with missile strike in Israel in 2024. And that was really, you know, all those things taken together were sort of, at that point the most open manifestation of this kind of long, simmering conflict.

[Elahe Izadi]

So these two countries have been intense enemies for a while now. Why did Israel launch these attacks now?

[Yeganeh Turbati]

I think the answer to why Israel decided to do this now is that they thought this was sort of their last chance to stop Iran before it was able to build an actual nuclear bomb. But there's also sort of this broader context of these nuclear talks that Iran has been holding with the Trump administration over the past few months.

[Elahe Izadi]

After the break, I talk with Yeganeh about how Israel's strikes put the United States in a complicated position. We'll be right back.

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[Elahe Izadi]

So, Yeganet, I want to now turn to the United States because they are also a major player in all of this. They've been a major player throughout the years, but in this moment, they're going to be crucial. The US as many of us know, is Israel's biggest supporter and supplier of aid. The US has also had a very tense, to put it lightly, relationship with the Islamic Republic over the years. Technically, no direct diplomatic relationship. But we've also seen in recent months that the Trump administration has been having these direct talks with Iran. Tell me about those talks.

[Yeganeh Turbati]

Right. So Trump has sort of deployed his senior aides, Steve Witkoff, to hold several rounds of negotiations with the Iranian government over some sort of nuclear deal. And they were making progress at some points. At some points, they seemed to be completely far apart. But these talks were ongoing. And there was a sixth round of talks that was supposed to happen on Sunday, two days after Israel started its attack. So, you know, that had been kind of a process that was happening, and there were hopes that there could be a diplomatic solution to this issue.

[Elahe Izadi]

And just really briefly, tell me about Iran's nuclear program. Like, what do they say it's for and how much have they put into this?

[Yeganeh Turbati]

So the Iranians say that their program is peaceful. They've always said that. And they say that they have a right to enrichment of uranium for peaceful purposes. And they say they want to use this for medical purposes, for energy purposes. And, you know, in some ways, it's a matter of pride for them as well that, you know, we're an independent, sovereign nation. There's no reason that we should not have this when other countries do have this. Of course, many, especially the United States and Israel, believe that it is not a peaceful program.

[Elahe Izadi]

And I mean, there was an agreement previously to try to constrain Irani's nuclear program. And President Trump withdrew from that during his first term.

[Yeganeh Turbati]

Right, Right. So President Obama, especially his second term, he really focused on getting a deal with Iran that would limit its nuclear program, put it under strict observation in return for the lifting of some of the harshest sanctions that Iran had been facing. And President Trump on the campaign trail, you know, basically said that that deal was a disaster. And in office in his first term, he pulled out of that deal.

[Elahe Izadi]

So now the Trump administration has been engaged in trying to strike a new deal to limit Iran's nuclear program. And just days before another round of talks was set to take place, Israel launches these strikes. Is that timing a coincidence?

[Yeganeh Turbati]

I, you know, don't know exactly what Israel was thinking, but I think it's hard to look at that and think that they're totally disconnected. Israel has never really been a fan of the idea of these talks. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was hugely against the deal that President Obama and his diplomats struck back in 2015. And I think they're very skeptical of them now. And the idea that this would actually limit Iran's nuclear program and lessen the threat to Israel that they see from the Islamic Republic.

[Elahe Izadi]

So where does the United States stand now on Israel, its ally, striking Iran?

[Yeganeh Turbati]

Well, the US Faces a really tough choice. So when the strikes first happened, the statements that we saw from US Officials were very much trying to kind of distance the United States from involvement in this. Of course, the Iranians did not see it that way. And they immediately said that, you know, because the US Is a supporter of Israel, it's also implicated in this. One of the major objectives that Israel has is to basically completely incapacitate Iran's nuclear program. In order to do that, it would have to incapacitate this one facility called Fordo that is under hundreds of feet of concrete. It's deeply, deeply underground. It's inaccessible with regular bombs. The one kind of country that's capable of hitting a target like that and destroying it is the United States with what's called a so called bunker buster bomb. And so if this sort of mission that Israel has launched, this sort of series of strikes is going to achieve its objective, you would think that you would have to bring in the US in order to do that. But that then directly involves the United States in launching an attack on Iran. And that kind of opens up a whole new vista of issues.

[Elahe Izadi]

Well, yeah. Why? Talk to me about why the United States and US Officials are reluctant to get directly involved and would want to give the appearance of distancing itself from its ally, attacking what is also its enemy.

[Yeganeh Turbati]

President Trump has campaigned and has kind of cast himself as someone who does not want to start new wars. And when it comes to Russia, Ukraine, when it comes to Israel, Gaza, at least his rhetoric has been, we want to make peace, we want to have a deal. We want to kind of avoid getting especially the United States involved more deeply into these intractable conflicts. And for then the US to go and Directly attack an Iranian site would completely go against that. So that's a big sort of issue that I'm sure the White House is discussing and trying to kind of wrap its head around right now. There's also a question of, you know, if the US Were to do that, then would Iran retaliate against US Bases in the region, soldiers stationed in the region, Americans overall? Like that is a really big issue. And then does this conflict widen even further and just become like a much more violent and complicated war?

[Elahe Izadi]

What has Trump said about this conflict so far?

[Yeganeh Turbati]

So, although the White House and the administration kind of initially tried to sort of distance themselves, President Trump's statements in the days after sort of almost endorsed the attack in a way. He was basically saying that Iran should have made a deal when they had a chance. I gave them the chance to do it, and they refused. And so this is now what happens. And in one of his posts, he warned people to get out of Tehran, which seemed to kind of indicate that there would be wider attacks on the city. And he's basically said that, like, they need to just make a deal in order to make this stop. And he's also said repeatedly, especially in recent hours, even that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Now, we don't know what that means. Does that mean that he's gonna decide that in order to accomplish that goal, the US should get involved? That's still very unclear.

[Elahe Izadi]

Yegon. We heard from someone again at the top of this conversation who was expressing a range of mixed emotions, in part because this is an Iranian man who's been living under this government that he finds very repressive. And this government in Iran has already withstood a lot of internal dissent and remains in power. And I'm thinking even the more recent Woman Life, Freedom and anti government protests, the Iranian government cracked down very harshly, imprisoned and killed some of its own people. So I think this conflict with Israel, a lot of people are asking this question, as Merda did, will this weaken the Iranian government to the point that it could fall?

[Yeganeh Turbati]

Yeah, I think that Iranians have a deep pessimism right now about their own ability to change their government for the better, whether that is through reform or through toppling it themselves. They've tried various methods over the past 10, 20, 30 years, and none have seemed to really work. And so there was some hope when this began that perhaps Israel could do it for them, despite, of course, the risks of a wider war, which are really unpredictable and which we just can't know ahead of time how things are gonna end up? We don't know yet. It's really hard to tell. We don't know if there's dissent right now among the top military ranks against the clerical leadership for having gotten Iran to this point. We don't know if there's potential for when the Supreme Leader dies.

[Elahe Izadi]

Who is the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei?

[Yeganeh Turbati]

Yeah, his name is ali Khamenei. He's 86 years old. He's been ruling Iran since 1989. You know, when he passes, what kind of system would come after if it would remain clerical, how it would change? And we don't know, like, if these attacks are gonna lead to some sort of, like, drastic political change. I haven't seen indications of that yet, but we're still in the very first days of this, and we just don't know what's gonna happen. And there's an open question and some chatter about could Israel attack and kill the Supreme Leader himself and then what would happen in that case? Who would actually be running the country? We just don't know.

[Elahe Izadi]

Where could this conflict head from here? Could we be seeing this going toward a war?

[Yeganeh Turbati]

Yes, I think that's very, very possible. This could go on for days, more, weeks, more. And it's unclear to me kind of what is the end state of this? What is the development that then kind of puts an end to this? Is it the destruction of all these nuclear facilities? Is it regime change and things could just spiral in a quite dangerous way?

[Elahe Izadi]

Yegane, thank you so much for joining and explaining all this.

[Yeganeh Turbati]

Thank you so much for having me.

[Elahe Izadi]

Yeganeh Turbati is a reporter for the Post. She's also the co author of the upcoming book Stolen Betrayal and Hope in Modern Iran. It comes out next year. After Yeganeh and I spoke, President Donald Trump ratcheted up tensions with Iran. He claimed the United States knows the location of the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but that the US Is not looking to assassinate him for the time being. Trump made the comments in a social media post. It was one of several posts he made in recent hours that took an increasingly hostile posture toward Iran. The Post is continuing to cover this as Trump weighs a larger U.S. role in this conflict. You can read [e-mail] that's it for Post Reports. Thanks for listening. If you appreciate our show and the coverage we're providing here, help other people discover us by leaving a rating on Spotify or a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Today's show was produced by Peter Bresnan. It was mixed by Sam Baer and edited by Lucy Perkins. Thanks to Erin Cunningham. I'm Elahe Izadi. We'll be back tomorrow with more stories from the Washington Post.

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