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From Revolution to War: The History Behind the Iran-Israel-U.S. Conflict  March 6, 2026

 

Hello and happy Friday. We have made it to the best day of the week. I'm Coy Wire.

 

This is CNN10, your 10 minutes of news where I simply tell you the what, letting you decide what to think. We are finishing this week strong, starting with the latest on Israel and the United States war with Iran. Tomorrow marks one week since the war began.

 

The fast moving conflict has widened throughout the Middle East and its impact is being felt around the world. This is just the latest escalation in a long complex history involving Iran, the U.S. and Israel.

 

Tensions have been growing for decades over issues like control of Iran's oil, the country's desire for a nuclear program and the fight for political influence throughout the Middle East.

 

Let's begin in 1951. Iran elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, who pushed to nationalize the country's oil fields or bring them back under control from the British government.

 

nationalize [ˈnæʃǝnḷˌaɪz] v. 使国有化

 

The move, while popular in Iran, worried some governments who saw it as a potential win for the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.

 

In 1953, Mossadegh was removed from power as part of a U.S.-backed coup that overthrew Iran's democratic government. He was replaced by U.S.-supported Iranian monarch Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who then ruled the country as the Shah, or king, for more than two decades.

 

Shah [ʃɑ] n.（中东国家的）君主，国王

 

The Shah remained a close ally of the U.S., but many Iranians resented the foreign interference, fueling an anti-American sentiment in the country.

 

resent [rɪˈzɛnt] v. 愤慨；怨恨

 

During this period, the U.S. helped Iran begin building out a civil nuclear energy program. The capital city of Tehran looked much different than it does today. Women were not required to dress modestly, the influence of Western culture was prevalent, and Iranian universities flourished.

 

Then, in 1979, everything changed with the Iranian Revolution. Millions of Iranians took to the streets to protest the Shah's regime, which they viewed as corrupt and illegitimate.

 

illegitimate [ˌɪlɪˈdʒɪtǝmɪt] adj. 非法的，不合法的

 

Secular protesters opposed his authoritarianism, while Islamist protesters opposed his modernization agenda.

 

secular [ˈsɛkjǝlɚ] adj. 非宗教的

 

The Shah was forced to flee the country, and Iran transformed from a Western-backed monarchy to an Islamic republic. That's a form of government in which religious leaders hold majority political power.

 

This new government was led by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, an Islamic scholar who'd been exiled during the Shah's reign.

 

ayatollah [ˌaɪjǝˈtolǝ] n. 伊朗回教什叶派的宗教领袖

 

He served until his death in 1989. He was succeeded by the nation's most recent Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, who was killed last week in the U.S.-Israeli military strikes in Tehran.

 

succeed [sǝkˈsid] v. 继任；继承

 

The Iranian Revolution marked a stark shift in Iranian relations with both the U.S. and Israel.

 

It was marked by events like the Iran hostage crisis, when dozens of American citizens were held hostage in Tehran for 444 days.

 

And, in the five decades since, tensions between these countries have continued to grow.

 

From every corner of the world, nations and people have voiced their strong revulsion and condemnation of Iran, and have joined us in calling for the release of the hostages.

 

revulsion [rɪˈvʌlʃǝn] n. 嫌恶；强烈反感

 

Iran's current government does not recognize the state of Israel. And Israel has long accused Iran of using their nuclear energy program to develop nuclear weapons.

 

There's no indication Iran currently has developed any, though the country has built a stockpile of enriched uranium, a precursor to building nuclear weapons.

 

enriched [ɪnˈrɪtʃt] adj. 浓缩的

precursor [priˈkɝsɚ] n. 前驱物

 

In 2015, Iran reached a landmark deal with the U.S. and five other world powers to scale back its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions or economic penalties.

 

scale back 縮減，縮小

 

President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from that deal during his first term in 2018. And, in June of 2025, the U.S. struck a series of key Iranian nuclear facilities with the goal of destroying Iran's nuclear program.

 

Earlier this year, Iran was rocked by unrest as anti-government protests unfolded across the nation. The government's brutal crackdown resulted in the deaths of thousands of protesters. This brings us to the present.

 

Less than a week ago, the United States and Israel launched a joint military attack across Iran, calling them preemptive attacks. Key leaders throughout Iran's government were killed, and Iran has retaliated with strikes throughout the Middle East.

 

preemptive [priˈɛmptɪv] adj. 先發制人的

 

Pop quiz hotshot.

 

Which two U.S. states do not observe daylight saving time?

 

California and Nevada, Texas and Oklahoma, Hawaii and Arizona, or Alaska and Arizona?

 

It's your time to shine if you said Hawaii and Arizona. Most of Arizona stays on standard time all year, except for the Navajo Nation lands, which stretch across multiple states. The tribal government chose to adopt daylight saving, so the entire reservation stays on the same time.

 

All right, get ready to spring forward, set those clocks ahead, and yes, sadly lose an hour of sleep. Sunday marks the beginning of daylight saving time. At 2 a.m., clocks across much of the U.S. and other countries will spring forward an hour and stay that way until November.

 

That means one less hour of sleep for many of us. So why do we have daylight saving? The tradition has its roots in train schedules, put into practice by the U.S. and Europe during World War I to save fuel and power.

 

The twice-a-year system we're most familiar with came about in 1966, when Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, establishing a nationwide system.

 

uniform [ˈjunǝˌfɔrm] adj. 相同的，一致的

 

If you're not a fan, you are not alone. Some studies show the one-hour change can disrupt body rhythms tuned to the Earth's rotation. Some lawmakers have listened to their constituents' complaints.

 

constituent [kǝnˈstɪtʃʊǝnt] n. 选民

 

Nineteen states have passed legislation to make DST permanent. It can't take effect, though, unless Congress changes the federal law.

 

This Women's History Month, we have been highlighting some of the groundbreaking women of our time.

 

Today, we are learning about someone whose work quietly shaped the Internet. Karen Spark-Jones helped invent the technology that makes modern search engines possible.

 

Most early computer scientists were trying to convince users to use code to make computers do what they wanted, but Spark-Jones was the first person to teach computers to understand human language instead.

 

The self-taught British computer scientist spent decades studying how machines understand language, a field known as natural language processing. In the 1970s, she developed a method called inverse document frequency. The idea was simple.

 

inverse [ɪnˈvɝs] adj. 倒转的；反向的

 

Figure out which words in a document were actually important. Common words like the or and don't tell a computer much, but specific words help narrow down exactly what someone is searching for.

 

The technology is essentially using language in a very limited kind of way.

 

It uses so-called extracted terms. That's to say we use single terms or pairs of words defined just by proximity in a text or by constant co-occurrence over a text. That says something, that there is some kind of relationship between them.

 

proximity [prɑkˈsɪmǝtɪ] n. 接近

 

We don't know what it is, but with any luck, it'll be useful to us.

 

Her discovery became a key part of the technology behind modern search engines like Google. So, when you type a question into a search bar and instantly get results, you are seeing Karen Spark-Jones' work in action.

 

In honor of Read Across America Week, we are highlighting some of your favorite books and books you are reading right now. Maria Sanchez at St. Anthony Indian School in Zuni, New Mexico says her favorite book of all time is The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. Maria writes, this book makes me happy in ways I didn't know were possible.

 

The storyline as well as the characters are written very well and tells a tale that will never get old.

 

Awesome stuff. Thank you for sharing your reading list with us.

 

I've got a shout out today to some erudite viewers who caught something I said this week that was technically incorrect.

 

erudite [ˈɛrʊˌdaɪt] adj. 博学的

 

Talking about the JTEC convention that converts heat into electricity. I said it creates energy, when in actuality, I should have said it converts the heat energy because according to the first law of thermodynamics, energy cannot be created or destroyed.

 

actuality [ˌæktʃʊˈælǝtɪ] n.（常用复）现状；真事，事实

thermodynamics [ˌθɝmodaɪˈnæmɪks] n.（用作单）【物】热电学

 

It can only be transferred or converted from one form to another.

 

So, shout out to Mrs. P's science class at Lenox Middle School in Lenox, California. Thank you for keeping us on point like decimals.

 

decimal [ˈdɛsɪmḷ] n. 小數

 

Play that Friday music, Nadir. Go out and make yourself a wonderful weekend. Make someone smile.

 

You never know when or how or who, but you may be the light someone needs. I'm Coy Wire. This is CNN 10.

 

It's been a blessing to spend this week with you.