1 00:00:16,810 --> 00:00:19,650 To understand why the United States and Israel launched 2 00:00:19,650 --> 00:00:24,290 Operation Epic Fury on February 28th, 2026, you have to go back 3 00:00:24,290 --> 00:00:27,570 73 years. Back to a summer morning in 4 00:00:27,570 --> 00:00:30,450 Tehran. Back to ACIA officer with a 5 00:00:30,450 --> 00:00:34,090 suitcase full of cash and a plan to topple a democratically 6 00:00:34,090 --> 00:00:36,960 elected government. Back to the single event that 7 00:00:37,040 --> 00:00:40,000 more than any other, planted the seeds of everything that 8 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:43,160 followed. This is a bonus episode of Epic 9 00:00:43,160 --> 00:00:48,080 Fury, the US Iran war podcast. This episode is different from 10 00:00:48,080 --> 00:00:51,200 our Daily News briefings. There are no breaking 11 00:00:51,200 --> 00:00:55,080 developments here. No missile counts, no death 12 00:00:55,080 --> 00:00:57,920 tolls. Instead, this episode exists to 13 00:00:57,920 --> 00:01:00,920 answer one question. How do we get here? 14 00:01:01,400 --> 00:01:03,720 Because the war you've been hearing about in our daily 15 00:01:03,720 --> 00:01:07,680 episodes did not begin on February 28th, 2026. 16 00:01:08,120 --> 00:01:11,640 It began in many ways, in August 1953. 17 00:01:12,040 --> 00:01:16,480 August 19th, 1953. Tehran, Iran. 18 00:01:16,840 --> 00:01:19,240 Iran at that moment was a democracy. 19 00:01:19,840 --> 00:01:23,840 A young, imperfect, turbulent democracy, but a democracy 20 00:01:23,840 --> 00:01:26,920 nonetheless. Its Prime Minister was a man 21 00:01:26,920 --> 00:01:31,320 named Mohammed Mazadek. He was 71 years old, Oxford and 22 00:01:31,320 --> 00:01:34,320 Paris educated, known for fainting dramatically in 23 00:01:34,320 --> 00:01:37,520 Parliament to make political points, and beloved by millions 24 00:01:37,520 --> 00:01:39,560 of Iranians for one central achievement. 25 00:01:39,960 --> 00:01:44,600 He had nationalized Iran's oil. For decades, Iran's vast oil 26 00:01:44,600 --> 00:01:47,640 reserves have been controlled almost entirely by the Anglo 27 00:01:47,640 --> 00:01:51,400 Iranian Oil Company, a British corporation that later became 28 00:01:51,400 --> 00:01:54,680 British Petroleum. The arrangement was, by any 29 00:01:54,680 --> 00:01:57,800 modern standard, extraordinary in its imbalance. 30 00:01:58,200 --> 00:02:01,360 Iran received a fraction of the profits from its own natural 31 00:02:01,360 --> 00:02:03,560 resources, while Britain grew wealthy from them. 32 00:02:04,040 --> 00:02:08,440 In 1951, Mosaddek pushed through the nationalization of those oil 33 00:02:08,440 --> 00:02:11,840 fields, declaring that Iran's oil belonged to Iran. 34 00:02:12,200 --> 00:02:15,480 The Iranian parliament voted unanimously in support. 35 00:02:15,920 --> 00:02:18,600 The Iranian public celebrated in the streets. 36 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:22,400 Britain was furious. London immediately imposed an 37 00:02:22,400 --> 00:02:25,360 embargo on Iranian oil, strangling the country's 38 00:02:25,360 --> 00:02:27,600 economy. Britain also appealed to the 39 00:02:27,600 --> 00:02:30,720 United States for help, making the Cold War argument that 40 00:02:30,720 --> 00:02:34,120 Mazadek's weakness was making Iran vulnerable to a communist 41 00:02:34,120 --> 00:02:36,560 takeover by the Soviet aligned to the party. 42 00:02:37,120 --> 00:02:39,800 It was an argument that resonated in Washington, where 43 00:02:39,800 --> 00:02:43,040 the Eisenhower administration was already deeply alarmed by 44 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:45,720 Soviet expansion. What followed was a covert 45 00:02:45,720 --> 00:02:49,360 operation run jointly by Britain's MI 6 and the American 46 00:02:49,360 --> 00:02:53,760 CIA, codenamed Operation Boot by the British in Operation Ajax by 47 00:02:53,760 --> 00:02:56,520 the Americans. The CIA's lead operative on the 48 00:02:56,520 --> 00:02:59,800 ground was Kermit Roosevelt Junior, the grandson of 49 00:02:59,800 --> 00:03:03,560 President Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt arrived in Tehran with 50 00:03:03,560 --> 00:03:06,640 suitcases of cash and a sophisticated plan to 51 00:03:06,640 --> 00:03:11,040 manufacture a political crisis. CIA funded agents posed as 52 00:03:11,040 --> 00:03:14,680 Mazdek supporters and staged violent demonstrations designed 53 00:03:14,680 --> 00:03:17,760 to discredit him. Prosha mobs were paid and bussed 54 00:03:17,760 --> 00:03:20,920 into Tehran. Newspaper editors were bribed to 55 00:03:20,920 --> 00:03:25,080 print anti Mozdek propaganda. Religious leaders were recruited 56 00:03:25,080 --> 00:03:28,200 to turn against him. False flag attacks were carried 57 00:03:28,200 --> 00:03:31,440 out and blamed on communists to stoke fear among Iran's 58 00:03:31,440 --> 00:03:35,400 conservative population. It was, in modern terminology, A 59 00:03:35,400 --> 00:03:38,320 disinformation and destabilization campaign of 60 00:03:38,320 --> 00:03:40,560 remarkable sophistication for its era. 61 00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:44,000 The first coup attempt on August 15th failed. 62 00:03:44,440 --> 00:03:47,400 Mozdek's forces arrested many of the plotters. 63 00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:51,280 The Shah, who had been persuaded to sign royal decrees dismissing 64 00:03:51,280 --> 00:03:54,160 Mosaddek, lost his nerve and fled to Rome. 65 00:03:54,560 --> 00:03:58,040 Roosevelt, who was supposed to have left Iran by then, stayed 66 00:03:58,040 --> 00:04:02,480 and planned a second attempt four days later, on August 19th. 67 00:04:02,760 --> 00:04:06,560 The second attempt succeeded. Pro Shah forces and sympathetic 68 00:04:06,560 --> 00:04:10,000 military officers, with CIA financial and logistical 69 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:12,600 backing, seized key points across Tehran. 70 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:15,120 Mosaddek loyalists were overwhelmed. 71 00:04:15,560 --> 00:04:19,240 Between 200 and 300 people were killed in the fighting in the 72 00:04:19,240 --> 00:04:22,760 streets of Tehran. Mosaddek was arrested, tried by 73 00:04:22,760 --> 00:04:26,360 a military court, convicted of treason, sentenced to three 74 00:04:26,360 --> 00:04:29,200 years in prison, and then placed under house arrest for the 75 00:04:29,200 --> 00:04:32,800 remainder of his life. He died in 1967. 76 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:34,480 Never having regained his freedom. 77 00:04:34,920 --> 00:04:38,480 The Shah Muhammad Rezapalavi returned to power. 78 00:04:38,920 --> 00:04:42,680 He would rule Iran for the next 26 years, supported and 79 00:04:42,680 --> 00:04:46,480 sustained by the United States. In the immediate aftermath of 80 00:04:46,480 --> 00:04:50,320 the coup, Iran's oil fields were handed back, but this time the 81 00:04:50,320 --> 00:04:53,400 arrangement was even more favorable to the West. the 82 00:04:53,400 --> 00:04:56,320 United States strong arm the shine to giving American, 83 00:04:56,440 --> 00:04:59,920 British, and French oil companies a 40% ownership stake 84 00:04:59,920 --> 00:05:02,640 in Iran's oil production for the next 25 years. 85 00:05:03,040 --> 00:05:06,960 The CIA did not officially acknowledge its role in the 1953 86 00:05:06,960 --> 00:05:10,880 coup until 2013, sixty years after the fact. 87 00:05:11,320 --> 00:05:14,560 The reason this matters, and the reason this episode starts here, 88 00:05:14,760 --> 00:05:18,360 is that the 1953 coup is the foundational grievance that 89 00:05:18,360 --> 00:05:21,160 shaped everything that followed in Iran's relationship with the 90 00:05:21,160 --> 00:05:24,160 United States. Every generation of Iranians 91 00:05:24,160 --> 00:05:26,720 learned what their government described as the lesson of 92 00:05:26,720 --> 00:05:31,120 Mazadek that Iran could not trust the West, that America 93 00:05:31,120 --> 00:05:35,120 would manipulate, undermine and betray any Iranian government 94 00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:37,960 that did not serve its interests, and that the price of 95 00:05:37,960 --> 00:05:41,520 defying the United States was imprisonment, exile, or death. 96 00:05:42,040 --> 00:05:44,560 The Shah ruled Iran for 26 years. 97 00:05:44,960 --> 00:05:48,120 His modernization program, which he called the White Revolution, 98 00:05:48,400 --> 00:05:51,480 brought real economic development and social changes, 99 00:05:51,480 --> 00:05:53,440 including expanded rights for women. 100 00:05:53,880 --> 00:05:56,840 But his rule was also brutally authoritarian. 101 00:05:57,440 --> 00:06:01,440 His secret police force, Sabich, trained in part by the CIA, was 102 00:06:01,440 --> 00:06:04,240 notorious for the torture and imprisonment of political 103 00:06:04,240 --> 00:06:07,560 opponents. 10s of thousands of Iranians were arrested. 104 00:06:08,160 --> 00:06:11,680 Hundreds, by conservative estimates, were executed. 105 00:06:12,080 --> 00:06:15,040 By the late 1970's, the combination of cultural 106 00:06:15,040 --> 00:06:17,800 resentment at the Shah's Westernization, political 107 00:06:17,800 --> 00:06:21,680 repression, economic inequality and the legacy of American 108 00:06:21,680 --> 00:06:23,680 interference had created a powder keg. 109 00:06:24,080 --> 00:06:27,360 The match was provided by Ayatollah Ruhala Khomeini, an 110 00:06:27,360 --> 00:06:30,720 elderly Shia cleric who'd been exiled first to Iraq and then to 111 00:06:30,720 --> 00:06:33,880 France, and who had spent years building a revolutionary 112 00:06:33,880 --> 00:06:36,440 movement through recorded cassette tape smuggled into 113 00:06:36,440 --> 00:06:40,040 Iran. In 1978, mass protests swept the 114 00:06:40,040 --> 00:06:44,160 country. In January 1979, the Shah fled 115 00:06:44,160 --> 00:06:47,600 Iran and entered exile. He would never return. 116 00:06:47,960 --> 00:06:53,440 On February 1st, 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini flew back to Tehran 117 00:06:53,440 --> 00:06:55,560 from Paris to a reception of millions. 118 00:06:55,960 --> 00:06:58,760 The Islamic Republic of Iran was declared. 119 00:06:59,160 --> 00:07:02,800 Khomeini became its supreme leader, and the country that had 120 00:07:02,800 --> 00:07:05,560 been one of America's closest allies in the Middle East 121 00:07:05,560 --> 00:07:08,640 overnight became one of its most implacable enemies. 122 00:07:09,080 --> 00:07:12,560 The break was made permanent in November 1979 when a group of 123 00:07:12,560 --> 00:07:14,960 Iranian students, calling themselves the Students 124 00:07:14,960 --> 00:07:17,600 following the line of the Imams, stormed the United States 125 00:07:17,600 --> 00:07:21,520 Embassy in Tehran and took 52 American diplomats and staff 126 00:07:21,520 --> 00:07:24,120 hostage. Their stated justification was 127 00:07:24,120 --> 00:07:26,120 the same grievance that had never died. 128 00:07:26,520 --> 00:07:29,400 They believe the United States was planning another coup to 129 00:07:29,400 --> 00:07:32,680 reinstall the Shah, just as it had in 1953. 130 00:07:33,160 --> 00:07:35,920 The Shah had been allowed into the United States for medical 131 00:07:35,920 --> 00:07:39,400 treatment, and the students demanded his extradition to face 132 00:07:39,400 --> 00:07:43,920 trial in Iran. The hostage crisis lasted 444 133 00:07:43,920 --> 00:07:46,560 days. It destroyed the presidency of 134 00:07:46,560 --> 00:07:49,280 Jimmy Carter. It fundamentally altered 135 00:07:49,280 --> 00:07:52,640 American domestic politics, and it's severed diplomatic 136 00:07:52,640 --> 00:07:55,920 relations between the United States and Iran, a severing that 137 00:07:55,920 --> 00:07:59,000 has never been formally repaired in the 47 years since. 138 00:07:59,400 --> 00:08:03,960 The 52 American hostages were released on January 20th, 1981, 139 00:08:04,120 --> 00:08:07,440 the exact day Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as president, a 140 00:08:07,440 --> 00:08:10,120 timing that many historians argue was deliberately 141 00:08:10,120 --> 00:08:13,480 orchestrated by the Iranians to maximize Carter's humiliation. 142 00:08:13,920 --> 00:08:17,120 The 1980s brought a new dimension to the conflict. 143 00:08:17,560 --> 00:08:22,880 In September 1980, Iraq, led by Saddam Hussein, invaded Iran. 144 00:08:23,280 --> 00:08:26,000 The war that followed was one of the most brutal conflicts of the 145 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:30,520 20th century, lasting 8 years, killing between 500,000 and 146 00:08:30,520 --> 00:08:33,880 1,000,000 people and consuming an entire generation of young 147 00:08:33,880 --> 00:08:36,799 Iranians in trench warfare reminiscent of the First World 148 00:08:36,799 --> 00:08:38,919 War. The United States, viewing 149 00:08:38,919 --> 00:08:41,919 Saddam Hussein as a useful counterweight to the Islamic 150 00:08:41,919 --> 00:08:44,200 Republic, largely supported Iraq. 151 00:08:44,680 --> 00:08:47,720 It provided intelligence, financing and materials, 152 00:08:47,720 --> 00:08:50,400 including precursor chemicals that were used in chemical 153 00:08:50,400 --> 00:08:53,440 weapons attacks on Iranian troops and Kurdish civilians. 154 00:08:53,880 --> 00:08:56,760 It was during the Iran Iraq War that a relatively obscure 155 00:08:56,760 --> 00:08:59,680 politician named Ali Khamenei rose to prominence. 156 00:09:00,080 --> 00:09:04,600 He served as Iran's president from 1981 to 1989, building a 157 00:09:04,600 --> 00:09:07,720 reputation as a hardliner and loyal revolutionary. 158 00:09:08,120 --> 00:09:12,240 When Ayatollah Khomeini died in June 1989, it was Khamenei who 159 00:09:12,240 --> 00:09:15,600 was chosen as his successor as Supreme Leader, a post he would 160 00:09:15,600 --> 00:09:17,880 hold for 37 years until his death. 161 00:09:17,880 --> 00:09:20,280 In the opening hours of Operation Epic Fury. 162 00:09:20,680 --> 00:09:23,600 The Iran Iraq War also had a crucial side to mention that 163 00:09:23,600 --> 00:09:26,880 would shape the next 4 decades of American foreign policy. 164 00:09:27,440 --> 00:09:31,640 In 1983, a truck bomb drove into the headquarters of the United 165 00:09:31,640 --> 00:09:36,480 States Marine Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. 241 American 166 00:09:36,480 --> 00:09:41,160 marines and sailors were killed. A second bomb killed 58 French 167 00:09:41,160 --> 00:09:43,600 soldiers. The attack was carried out by 168 00:09:43,600 --> 00:09:46,760 Hezbollah, A Lebanese Shia militia that had been founded 169 00:09:46,840 --> 00:09:49,960 with direct support from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard 170 00:09:49,960 --> 00:09:52,360 Corps. It remains the deadliest single 171 00:09:52,360 --> 00:09:56,600 attack on United States military personnel since Vietnam, and it 172 00:09:56,600 --> 00:10:00,000 established the template for Iran's strategy of using proxy 173 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:03,000 forces to strike American targets while maintaining a 174 00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:08,320 degree of plausible deniability. In 1986, the Iran Contra Fair 175 00:10:08,320 --> 00:10:10,920 revealed that the Reagan administration had been secretly 176 00:10:10,920 --> 00:10:14,400 selling weapons to Iran, the same country publicly designated 177 00:10:14,400 --> 00:10:17,640 as a sponsor of terrorism, in exchange for help securing the 178 00:10:17,640 --> 00:10:20,760 release of American hostages held in Lebanon by Iranian 179 00:10:20,760 --> 00:10:23,240 backed groups. The proceeds from those weapons 180 00:10:23,240 --> 00:10:26,400 sales were secretly funneled to right wing Contra rebels in 181 00:10:26,400 --> 00:10:29,280 Nicaragua in violation of a congressional ban. 182 00:10:29,680 --> 00:10:32,720 The scandal nearly destroyed Reagan's presidency and 183 00:10:32,720 --> 00:10:35,960 illustrated the extraordinary contradictions and hypocrisies 184 00:10:35,960 --> 00:10:38,840 that had come to define the United States relationship with 185 00:10:38,840 --> 00:10:42,000 the Islamic Republic. The 1990s brought relative 186 00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:45,040 quiet, indirect military confrontation, but the 187 00:10:45,040 --> 00:10:47,840 foundations of the next phase of conflict were being laid. 188 00:10:48,240 --> 00:10:52,520 In 1995, the United States imposed A comprehensive embargo 189 00:10:52,640 --> 00:10:56,800 on trade with Iran, and in the late 1990s a reformist wave 190 00:10:56,800 --> 00:11:00,040 swept Iranian politics with the election of President Mohammed 191 00:11:00,040 --> 00:11:03,240 Ghatami, who reached out toward the West and offered a vision of 192 00:11:03,240 --> 00:11:05,560 what he called a dialogue of Civilizations. 193 00:11:05,960 --> 00:11:08,840 For a brief period, the possibility of a genuine 194 00:11:08,840 --> 00:11:13,720 rapprochement seemed real. Then came September 11, 2001, 195 00:11:14,280 --> 00:11:16,840 and with it everything changed again. 196 00:11:17,280 --> 00:11:20,920 In an extraordinary historical irony, Iran was among the first 197 00:11:20,920 --> 00:11:23,960 countries to offer condolences to the United States after the 198 00:11:23,960 --> 00:11:26,880 attacks. Iranians held spontaneous 199 00:11:26,880 --> 00:11:30,520 candlelight vigils in Tehran. Iran had its own reasons to 200 00:11:30,520 --> 00:11:34,480 oppose Al Qaeda and the Taliban, Sunni extremists who viewed Shia 201 00:11:34,480 --> 00:11:38,000 Iran as heretical. Behind the scenes, Iranian and 202 00:11:38,000 --> 00:11:40,760 American officials cooperated to some degree. 203 00:11:40,920 --> 00:11:44,040 In the early stages of the campaign against the Taliban in 204 00:11:44,040 --> 00:11:48,160 Afghanistan, the possibility of a genuine strategic realignment 205 00:11:48,160 --> 00:11:52,200 between Washington and Tehran seemed briefly within reach. 206 00:11:52,600 --> 00:11:57,320 Then, in January 2002, President George W Bush delivered his 207 00:11:57,320 --> 00:12:01,360 State of the Union address. He named Iran, Iraq and North 208 00:12:01,360 --> 00:12:05,680 Korea as an axis of evil. The phrase landed in Tehran like 209 00:12:05,680 --> 00:12:08,000 a bomb. Iranian reformists who have been 210 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:10,680 arguing for engagement with the West were humiliated. 211 00:12:11,120 --> 00:12:14,120 Hardliners who had always argued that America could never be 212 00:12:14,120 --> 00:12:17,280 trusted were vindicated. The window of possibility 213 00:12:17,280 --> 00:12:19,960 closed. Months after that speech, it was 214 00:12:19,960 --> 00:12:22,880 revealed that Iran had been secretly operating a uranium 215 00:12:22,880 --> 00:12:26,320 enrichment facility at Natan's and a heavy water reactor at 216 00:12:26,320 --> 00:12:29,400 Iraq, nuclear facilities that had never been disclosed to the 217 00:12:29,400 --> 00:12:31,400 International Atomic Energy Agency. 218 00:12:31,880 --> 00:12:35,440 Iran insisted its nuclear program was entirely civilian in 219 00:12:35,440 --> 00:12:38,960 purpose, intended to generate electricity and reduce 220 00:12:38,960 --> 00:12:41,040 dependence on its own oil reserves. 221 00:12:41,480 --> 00:12:45,120 Western governments, led by the United States and Israel, argue 222 00:12:45,120 --> 00:12:47,240 that the program had a weapons dimension. 223 00:12:47,720 --> 00:12:51,280 The debate over Iran's nuclear intentions became the defining 224 00:12:51,280 --> 00:12:54,040 geopolitical question of the next two decades. 225 00:12:54,480 --> 00:12:59,400 Between 2003 and 2015, a complex and exhausting series of 226 00:12:59,400 --> 00:13:02,840 diplomatic negotiations, international sanctions, United 227 00:13:02,840 --> 00:13:06,160 Nations Security Council resolutions, and covert sabotage 228 00:13:06,160 --> 00:13:09,800 campaigns unfolded around Iran's nuclear program. the United 229 00:13:09,800 --> 00:13:13,360 States and its European allies Britain, France, and Germany, 230 00:13:13,520 --> 00:13:17,240 the group known as the EU 3, negotiated repeatedly with Iran, 231 00:13:17,240 --> 00:13:20,480 seeking limits on enrichment in exchange for sanctions relief. 232 00:13:20,960 --> 00:13:23,640 Iran enriched. Sanctions tightened. 233 00:13:24,080 --> 00:13:27,800 Iran enriched more. In 2010, a sophisticated 234 00:13:27,800 --> 00:13:31,520 computer virus called Stuxnet, widely attributed to the United 235 00:13:31,520 --> 00:13:34,440 States and Israel, infected the control systems of the 236 00:13:34,440 --> 00:13:37,760 centrifuges at Iran's Natanz enrichment facility and 237 00:13:37,760 --> 00:13:39,880 destroyed approximately 1000 of them. 238 00:13:40,360 --> 00:13:44,000 It was one of the first acts of cyber warfare in history and set 239 00:13:44,000 --> 00:13:46,720 a precedent for the use of digital weapons against physical 240 00:13:46,720 --> 00:13:50,240 infrastructure. Iran also escalated covertly. 241 00:13:50,680 --> 00:13:54,160 Its nuclear scientists began to be assassinated on the streets 242 00:13:54,160 --> 00:13:59,320 of Tehran. 4 scientists were killed between 2010 and 2012 and 243 00:13:59,320 --> 00:14:02,840 operations widely attributed to Israel's Mossad intelligence 244 00:14:02,840 --> 00:14:05,760 service. In 2020, Mossenfoq Rosada, 245 00:14:05,920 --> 00:14:08,320 described by Western intelligence as the father of 246 00:14:08,320 --> 00:14:12,240 Iran's nuclear weapons program, was assassinated in an ambush on 247 00:14:12,240 --> 00:14:15,800 a road outside Tehran in an operation attributed to Israel 248 00:14:16,080 --> 00:14:18,720 using a remote control machine gun mounted on a truck. 249 00:14:19,160 --> 00:14:23,360 The diplomatic effort reached its high point in July 2015 with 250 00:14:23,360 --> 00:14:26,080 the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, 251 00:14:26,360 --> 00:14:29,920 the JCPOA, known simply as the Iran nuclear deal. 252 00:14:30,320 --> 00:14:32,880 The agreement was reached between Iran and the five 253 00:14:32,880 --> 00:14:35,720 permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, the 254 00:14:35,720 --> 00:14:40,000 United States, Russia, China, Britain and France, plus Germany 255 00:14:40,120 --> 00:14:44,200 and the European Union. Under the JCPOA, Iran agreed to 256 00:14:44,200 --> 00:14:49,400 reduce its uranium enrichment to 3.67%, well below the 90% 257 00:14:49,400 --> 00:14:51,200 required for weapons Gray material. 258 00:14:51,680 --> 00:14:55,040 It agreed to reduce its stockpile of enriched uranium by 259 00:14:55,040 --> 00:14:58,000 98%. It agreed to allow the most 260 00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:00,920 intrusive international inspections of its nuclear 261 00:15:00,920 --> 00:15:04,240 facilities in history. In exchange, sanctions that had 262 00:15:04,240 --> 00:15:06,360 crippled Iran's economy were lifted. 263 00:15:06,800 --> 00:15:08,960 Iranian celebrated in the streets. 264 00:15:09,400 --> 00:15:12,080 The deal was celebrated by its supporters as a historic 265 00:15:12,080 --> 00:15:15,080 diplomatic achievement that had peacefully constrained Iran's 266 00:15:15,080 --> 00:15:17,640 nuclear program without military action. 267 00:15:18,160 --> 00:15:21,320 It was denounced by its opponents, led by Israel and 268 00:15:21,320 --> 00:15:24,640 Republican politicians in the United States, as naive, 269 00:15:24,920 --> 00:15:27,640 unverifiable, and insufficiently permanent. 270 00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:31,320 The deal, they argued, merely delayed rather than eliminated 271 00:15:31,320 --> 00:15:35,720 Iran's nuclear ambitions. In May 2018, President Donald 272 00:15:35,720 --> 00:15:39,600 Trump, in his first term, unilaterally withdrew the United 273 00:15:39,600 --> 00:15:43,360 States from the JCPOA. He called it the worst deal ever 274 00:15:43,360 --> 00:15:46,480 negotiated. He reimposed sweeping economic 275 00:15:46,480 --> 00:15:49,800 sanctions on Iran under what his administration called a maximum 276 00:15:49,800 --> 00:15:53,400 pressure campaign, targeting Iran's financial, oil and 277 00:15:53,400 --> 00:15:56,560 shipping sectors and any foreign firm doing business with Iran. 278 00:15:56,960 --> 00:15:59,440 Iran's economy contracted sharply. 279 00:15:59,800 --> 00:16:03,160 The value of Iran's currency, the real collapsed. 280 00:16:03,560 --> 00:16:06,560 Inflation soared. Living standards fell 281 00:16:06,560 --> 00:16:10,040 dramatically. Iran responded by gradually and 282 00:16:10,040 --> 00:16:14,160 publicly abandoning the limits it had accepted under the JCPOA. 283 00:16:14,520 --> 00:16:19,080 It increased enrichment. It reduced cooperation with IAA 284 00:16:19,080 --> 00:16:22,240 inspectors. It accelerated centrifuge 285 00:16:22,240 --> 00:16:24,560 development. By the time Trump returned to 286 00:16:24,560 --> 00:16:28,360 office for his second term in January 2025, Iran had 287 00:16:28,360 --> 00:16:34,000 accumulated 460kg of uranium enriched to 60%, enough, experts 288 00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:36,800 said, to produce multiple nuclear weapons if enriched 289 00:16:36,800 --> 00:16:38,920 further. And in a covert underground 290 00:16:38,920 --> 00:16:42,200 facility that had not been declared to the IEA, Iran had 291 00:16:42,200 --> 00:16:45,880 been secretly stockpiling highly enriched uranium at even higher 292 00:16:45,880 --> 00:16:48,040 levels. The last piece of the chain 293 00:16:48,040 --> 00:16:51,600 leading to Operation Epic Fury involved the escalating shadow 294 00:16:51,600 --> 00:16:56,320 war between Iran and Israel. In April 2024, Israel 295 00:16:56,320 --> 00:16:59,600 assassinated senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps 296 00:16:59,600 --> 00:17:02,960 commanders in an air strike on Iran's embassy in Damascus, 297 00:17:02,960 --> 00:17:06,240 Syria. Iran responded in April 2024 298 00:17:06,240 --> 00:17:09,800 with its first direct attack on Israeli territory, a massive 299 00:17:09,800 --> 00:17:12,960 drone and missile barrage of over 300 projectiles. 300 00:17:13,359 --> 00:17:16,640 Israel retaliated with strikes on an Iranian radar 301 00:17:16,640 --> 00:17:18,920 installation. The cycle of direct 302 00:17:18,920 --> 00:17:22,480 confrontation between Iran and Israel, previously always 303 00:17:22,480 --> 00:17:26,240 conducted through proxies and deniable operations, had broken 304 00:17:26,240 --> 00:17:29,440 into the open. In June 2025, the Trump 305 00:17:29,440 --> 00:17:32,520 administration, in its second term working with Israel, 306 00:17:32,800 --> 00:17:36,280 launched a 12 day military operation against Iran's nuclear 307 00:17:36,280 --> 00:17:38,800 facilities. The operation destroyed 308 00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:42,280 significant portions of Iran's nuclear infrastructure and 309 00:17:42,280 --> 00:17:45,720 degraded its missile arsenal. Iran retaliated. 310 00:17:46,200 --> 00:17:48,240 A ceasefire was eventually reached. 311 00:17:48,640 --> 00:17:53,200 Iran formally terminated the JCPOA in October 2025. 312 00:17:53,640 --> 00:17:57,760 In late December 2025 and January 2026, the largest 313 00:17:57,760 --> 00:18:01,840 protests in Iran since the 1979 revolution erupted across the 314 00:18:01,840 --> 00:18:03,880 country. Driven by a catastrophic 315 00:18:03,880 --> 00:18:08,080 economic crisis, the government responded with deadly force. 316 00:18:08,480 --> 00:18:12,360 Estimates of the death toll among protesters range from 3000 317 00:18:12,360 --> 00:18:15,680 to 30,000. Trump expressed public support 318 00:18:15,680 --> 00:18:19,240 for the protesters. Nuclear negotiations resumed in 319 00:18:19,240 --> 00:18:23,800 February 2026. On February 27th, Oman's foreign 320 00:18:23,800 --> 00:18:26,520 minister declared that peace was within reach. 321 00:18:26,920 --> 00:18:30,440 That same day, Iranian negotiators told American envoy 322 00:18:30,440 --> 00:18:35,760 Steve Witkoff that Iran had 460kg of 60% enriched uranium, 323 00:18:35,920 --> 00:18:39,720 enough for 11 nuclear bombs. The next day, American 324 00:18:39,720 --> 00:18:42,480 intelligence confirmed that hidden underground facility 325 00:18:42,480 --> 00:18:46,080 contained uranium enriched to even higher levels and that Iran 326 00:18:46,080 --> 00:18:48,640 was two weeks away from a functional nuclear weapon. 327 00:18:49,160 --> 00:18:54,080 On February 28th, 2026, at 2:30 in the morning Eastern Time, the 328 00:18:54,080 --> 00:18:56,240 bombs fell. Everything you have heard in 329 00:18:56,240 --> 00:19:01,080 this episode, the coup of 1953, the revolution of 1979, the 330 00:19:01,080 --> 00:19:04,560 hostage crisis, the Iran Iraq war, the proxy networks, the 331 00:19:04,560 --> 00:19:08,960 nuclear program, the JCPOA, the maximum pressure campaign, the 332 00:19:08,960 --> 00:19:12,320 assassinations, the shadow war, all of it is the context for the 333 00:19:12,320 --> 00:19:14,600 conflict we are covering in our daily episodes. 334 00:19:15,040 --> 00:19:19,640 Not as justification for any side, not as an argument for or 335 00:19:19,640 --> 00:19:23,280 against what is happening right now, but as the factual record 336 00:19:23,280 --> 00:19:26,880 of how 73 years of history between two countries led to 337 00:19:26,880 --> 00:19:30,240 bombs falling on Tehran on a Saturday morning in February 338 00:19:30,240 --> 00:19:33,280 2026. History never begins with the 339 00:19:33,280 --> 00:19:36,600 first headline. It begins decades before. 340 00:19:37,040 --> 00:19:40,400 And understanding where this conflict came from is essential 341 00:19:40,400 --> 00:19:42,240 to understanding where it is going. 342 00:19:42,840 --> 00:19:46,800 That is the bonus episode of Epic Fury, the US Iran War 343 00:19:46,800 --> 00:19:49,280 podcast. For daily coverage of the 344 00:19:49,280 --> 00:19:53,040 ongoing conflict, subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcast, or 345 00:19:53,040 --> 00:19:55,920 YouTube. Every new episode lands directly 346 00:19:55,920 --> 00:19:58,640 with you. Share this episode with someone 347 00:19:58,640 --> 00:20:01,880 who wants to understand not just what is happening, but why.