Middle East and North Africa

Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s early Saturday morning announcement that the United States and Israel had launched “major combat operations” against the Iranian regime, reactions began to pour in from all corners of the globe and from key U.S. lawmakers with oversight responsibilities.

Since the beginning of the year, Trump has offered changing rationales for a preemptive attack on Iran—his second in less than a year—including punishing Tehran for its brutal January massacre of thousands of protesters and preventing the regime from obtaining a nuclear weapon. The latter is a tacit acknowledgment that the U.S.-Israel joint strikes in June 2025 were unsuccessful in their objective of permanently ending Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s early Saturday morning announcement that the United States and Israel had launched “major combat operations” against the Iranian regime, reactions began to pour in from all corners of the globe and from key U.S. lawmakers with oversight responsibilities.

Since the beginning of the year, Trump has offered changing rationales for a preemptive attack on Iran—his second in less than a year—including punishing Tehran for its brutal January massacre of thousands of protesters and preventing the regime from obtaining a nuclear weapon. The latter is a tacit acknowledgment that the U.S.-Israel joint strikes in June 2025 were unsuccessful in their objective of permanently ending Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

In a video announcing the Saturday strikes, Trump offered multiple justifications for taking military action, including to “defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime,” to “ensure that the region’s terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world,” and to “ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon.”

He also told the Washington Post in a phone call later on Saturday that his main concern was “freedom” for the Iranian people and that the United States was working to make Iran a “safe nation.”

Here’s how world leaders and leading U.S. lawmakers are responding so far.

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