The United States and Israel launched joint strikes against Iran on February 28, with President Trump announcing the start of “major combat operations”. In the strikes, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was assassinated, with his son Mojtaba Khamenei replacing him as Iran’s new supreme leader.
Iran and the US agreed to a two-week ceasefire on April 8. That same month, Pakistan hosted the first face-to-face talks between the US and Iran in 47 years, a round of negotiations that ended without a breakthrough but also without a full breakdown.
The two sides met again for high-level talks in Switzerland on June 20, following the signing of a preliminary agreement to end the war, and held further talks in Doha on July 1, with mediators citing “positive progress” at the time. That momentum proved short-lived: the US launched fresh strikes on Iran on July 8 in response to attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, prompting Tehran to retaliate as tensions in the strait flared once again.
