The war pitting the United States and Israel against Iran, which broke out on Feb. 28, reached its 100th day on Sunday. U.S. President Donald Trump boasted shortly after the airstrikes that the conflict would "end in four to five weeks," but changed his tone in an interview on June 5, saying it would "take some time" to reach an agreement. With the United States having failed to achieve its core objectives of regime change in Iran and the destruction of its nuclear weapons, and with U.S. midterm elections fast approaching, the burden on the Trump administration is only growing.
On Sunday, Middle Eastern media outlets including the UAE-based Gulf News and Al Jazeera spotlighted the situation of the Iran war as it entered its 100th day. Casualties in Iran alone have reached about 30,000. According to Iran's health ministry, the war has killed at least 3,468 Iranians and wounded more than 26,500 as of June 1. In Israel, 26 were killed in action, and 13 Americans were also killed in action.
The scope of economic damage extends beyond the Gulf states, owing to Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of the world's crude oil shipments pass. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose about 37%, from $67.02 per barrel on Feb. 27, just before the war, to $90.54 on June 5. Norway-based energy consultancy Rystad Energy estimated that the cost of repairing energy-related infrastructure in the Middle East caused by the Iran war could reach up to $58 billion (about 90 trillion won).
Despite the heavy costs, the Trump administration has failed to achieve the war objectives it had set out. The two core goals Trump put forward when launching the "epic fury" operation against Iran were regime change and the destruction of nuclear weapons. On the first day of the operation, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had ruled Iran for more than 30 years, was killed, along with dozens of others including senior officials of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). However, as Khamenei's son Mojtaba Khamenei rose to the position of supreme leader, the influence of hardliners only grew stronger. Trump, who said "I don't like him" shortly after Mojtaba was elevated to supreme leader, changed his stance on June 4 regarding the possibility of a meeting with Mojtaba, saying it "would be an honor" to meet.
Nor did it succeed in getting Iran to give up its highly enriched uranium. The United States and Iran are currently drafting a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to end the war, but they have agreed to negotiate the method of handling the highly enriched uranium over 60 days after the MOU is signed. With negotiations hitting an impasse, the issue was deferred as a future task. Gulf News assessed that "many of the Trump administration's goals remain unfulfilled." Regarding Iran, meanwhile, it analyzed that the country "can continue to exert economic and strategic pressure through the Gulf region and will remain central to any future agreement."
Positions also differ over Iran's frozen assets worth $24 billion (about 37 trillion won). Iran has put the lifting of the asset freeze forward as a precondition for negotiations, while the United States is reportedly reviewing a plan to use unspecified Iranian assets for the reconstruction costs of its Gulf allies.
The two sides continued localized skirmishes on June 6 as well. U.S. Central Command announced that it had "shot down two Iranian suicide attack drones that had been threatening international maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz." CNN, based on a recent analysis of satellite imagery, reported that Iran had restored 50 of the 69 tunnel entrances leading to its underground missile facilities. Neutralizing Iran's missile capabilities was the first of the five war objectives Trump outlined in March. On Sunday, Israel, despite earlier U.S. dissuasion, struck Lebanon's capital, Beirut. Dahieh, on the southern outskirts of Beirut where the airstrike took place, is known as a key stronghold of the pro-Iran armed faction Hezbollah.
The two sides, however, have not completely abandoned negotiations. Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Raza Naqvi delivered a personal letter from Pakistan's army chief Asim Munir, a key figure in the mediation, to Mojtaba's side on June 6, and met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday. There was also news that Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner visited the national laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, on June 4. The Oak Ridge laboratory is home to top experts in uranium processing and centrifuge technology, and the visit is interpreted as a move to address the Iranian uranium processing agenda at a practical level.
