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June 23, 2025 
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Will the “bully of the Middle East,” as President Trump called Iran, make peace, as he demanded? Or will Iran — as it has promised — fire back at American interests, continuing a spiral of war that has the world on edge?
New York Times Opinion writers and guest essayists explored the possibilities in the days after Washington entered Israel’s war, which is aimed at eliminating a nuclear threat from the Islamic Republic.
Nicholas Kristof laid out Iran’s immediate avenues, the prospects for its serious pursuit of nuclear weapons and the chances of regime change, a point more broadly explored by Karim Sadjadpour’s guest essay in a look at how war hurts or improves the fortunes of autocrats, but especially Iran’s theocrats. Colin P. Clarke, in another guest essay, ticked off the threats to American military interests, its allies among Gulf Arab states and targets in Western countries.
W.J. Hennigan suggested we are only at the beginning of a conflict, while Thomas L. Friedman took a step back and looked at how countries increasingly can be divided into cooperators and rogues, including Vladimir Putin’s Russia. “Putin and the ayatollahs want the exact same kind of world,” he writes, a world safe for autocracy, theocracy, thieving and oppression.
Frank Bruni turned his attention to the U.S. home front, specifically the gang of flatterers surrounding President Trump as he lets loose war’s dogs on the world.
Read Opinion’s coverage here:
Here’s what we’re focusing on today:
