What led to the war?

Iran, Israel and the Bomb

On February 28, 2026, the US and Israel launched massive strikes on Iran, claiming an imminent nuclear threat. This film traces how the world reached this point after more than three decades of shadow war over “the bomb”. Israel has tried to block Tehran’s nuclear drive with sabotage, assassinations and cyberwar – from the Stuxnet virus wrecking Natanz centrifuges to the AI-assisted killing of nuclear programme “father” Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, and a commando raid stealing 1.5 tonnes of secret nuclear archive files. Iran insists uranium enrichment is its sovereign right and key to national identity and regional power. As Israel pounded Iran’s nuclear facilities in June 2025 and systematically weakened its allies in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, nuclear talks continued in Geneva. Iran was edging towards diluting weapons-grade uranium – but Israel wasn’t prepared to wait, and pulled Washington into open war whose global consequences are only now beginning to unfold.

Directed by Miyuki Droz Aramaki