The United States is scaling back the number of personnel in the Middle East as the tensions between longtime foes Israel and Iran mount. The U.S. is downsizing its footprint in Iraq, while

This decision occurs during a period of heightened tensions ... might retaliate against an Israeli strike. However, diplomatic struggles between the US and Iran go back much further, inevitably ...

US President Donald Trump on Sunday denied American involvement in Israeli attacks on Iran while threatening massive retaliation if Tehran targets the US. "The U.S. had nothing to do with the attack on Iran, tonight," Trump wrote on Truth Social, distancing Washington from the strikes.

Israel unleashed airstrikes across Iran for a third day on Sunday and threatened even greater force as some Iranian missiles evaded Israeli air defenses to strike buildings in the heart of the country.

Blasts have been heard in Tehran and sirens have sounded in Israel as US president convenes National Security Council.

As an unprecedented Israeli attack on Iran last week sparks a spiraling conflict between the two enemy states, China has seen an opportunity to cast itself as potential peace broker – and an alternative voice to the United States.

Amid escalating tensions between Israel and Iran, the White House said that US forces in the Middle East remained in a "defensive" posture.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has spent almost four decades as Shi'ite Iran's supreme leader building a regional power to rival the Sunni states across the Gulf and implacably hostile to the U.S. and Israel - while crushing repeated unrest at home.