As predictions of a third world war spread across the nation, it’s important to be equipped with the facts of the Iranian-American conflict. Although the conflict’s  roots run long before the past week, the recent violence began after the death of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani by a U.S. airstrike ordered by President Donald Trump. 

The conflict stems from tensions over British influence in Iran back in  1951. Since the early ’50s the strain has continued to increase and in May of 2018, Trump backed out of the Iran nuclear deal, stating that he would place new sanctions on Iran.

In June of 2019 the U.S. blamed Iran for the downing of a drone and Iran announced that they would increase their amount of low-grade uranium reserves, bringing them closer to creating a nuclear bomb. U.S. forces then conducted airstrikes on facilities killing an estimated 25 people in December. 

The events occurring within the first few days of 2020 include an allegedly mistaken airstrike from the Iran military of a Ukrainian passenger jet, killing all 176 passengers. Trump decided not to respond to the missile attack which may lower tensions for the present time. 

“I definitely think that it would be detrimental [to start a third world war] because I think that it wasn’t really based on actual threats and it’s just Trump trying to cause fear in the U.S. people and so I think it would just lose a lot of lives for really no reason and it could have been solved diplomatically instead,” junior Faith Tabler said.

While assumptions have been made about the rising tensions, Trump stated that Iran has appeared to be standing down which is “good news” for both of the countries directly involved.