News about Iran • Israel

The United States attributes the worsening of relations to the 1979–81 Iran hostage crisis, Iran's repeated human rights abuses since the Islamic Revolution, different restrictions on using spy methods on democratic revolutions by the US, its anti-Western ideology and its nuclear program.

Iran's ballistic-missile program is the largest in the Middle East and plays a key role in Iran's military strategy. Its diverse short-range and medium-range ballistic missiles serve as a deterrent, support regional proxies, and bolster national defense capabilities.

Iran's ballistic missile program is greatly degraded. It is believed to still have some 700-1,000 missiles and fewer than 200 of its original 400 launchers. But the IDF targeted not only missiles and launchers, but the tunnels from which they emerge to fire, and the factories that make them and their components.