Talk:2026 Iran war/Archive 15

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Archive 10Archive 13Archive 14Archive 15Archive 16Archive 17

Section too long

The section Dual blockade (13 April – 18 June) appears to be too long, especially for an article that's already greatly oversized. Anyone disagree with this? If not, I or someone else should move some of this information to one of the child articles. Wikieditor662 (talk) 16:34, 23 June 2026 (UTC)

If there's no difference between the dual blockade and the 2026 United States naval blockade of Iran, then the information from section should be moved there, citations and all. Selbstporträt (talk) 17:08, 23 June 2026 (UTC)
The entirety of it or just parts? Wikieditor662 (talk) 17:38, 23 June 2026 (UTC)
Ideally, bit by bit. The worse way would be to scrape everything. We need to PRESERVE whatever is worth preserving.
We could start by comparing the two timelines. If we're lucky, what we got more or less coincides with the timeline over there. If we do, then all we need is to check if we could export the citations. There could be a ton of duplicates. That's usually a good sign.
When that's done, then we could excerpt the lead. Or we could add our own write-up. I prefer excerpts; others prefer write-ups. The page seems to work with excerpts. I could live with both.
Splits are never easy. Having dual pages with competing narratives is against policy. It needs to be done. Selbstporträt (talk) 18:13, 23 June 2026 (UTC)

Lead section

As stated at WP:AS, "most leads of featured articles are 250–400 words". The current lead has North of 900. I'm not a fan of hard size limits, but perhaps we could think of trimming it down a bit.

There are 7 paragraphs. I don't see the point of the second one: we don't need that much background information. I don't see why we should emphasize Trump's declarations either. So the lead should contain 5 paras at most. Perhaps 4 with some effort, but that can wait. Selbstporträt (talk) 15:47, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

The page has more than 17K words, and more than 1,2K citations. Dragon Lord have mercy. Selbstporträt (talk) 23:00, 22 June 2026 (UTC)
Update. We're at 809 words. Still too much emphasis on what people say. Many citations in the lead don't even appear in the text. This looks like an old lead. Selbstporträt (talk) 05:34, 24 June 2026 (UTC)
Update. We're at 700 words thanks to Tpbradbury! Selbstporträt (talk) 15:02, 24 June 2026 (UTC)

Invoke template

The invoke template is sometimes used to invoke (duh) citations instead of the conventional citation schemes.

Any reason why? Selbstporträt (talk) 23:20, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

If we didn't do that, the article would exceed the post-expand include size (PEIS) limit and some of the citation templates would not be transcluded. SuperPianoMan9167 (talk) 02:11, 23 June 2026 (UTC)
Thanks. Really not great to decide to bulldoze technical limits instead of cutting text that will be cut anyway. What is the highest number of citations a page can have?Selbstporträt (talk) 14:42, 23 June 2026 (UTC)
Scratching my itch, @PrimeHunter: led me to WP:NewPP limit report. Here is the current page's limit report:
NewPP limit report
Parsed by mw‐api‐ext.eqiad.main‐78f6f5fb5b‐8nmv2
Cached time: 20260624200807
Cache expiry: 14400
Cache expiry source: Module:Portal (os.date(%k))
Reduced expiry: true
Complications: [vary‐revision‐sha1, prevent‐selective‐update, vary‐revision, show‐toc]
CPU time usage: 6.805 seconds
Real time usage: 8.376 seconds
Preprocessor visited node count: 40647/1000000
Revision size: 437713/2097152 bytes
Post‐expand include size: 1746648/2097152 bytes
Template argument size: 29248/2097152 bytes
Highest expansion depth: 18/100
Expensive parser function count: 99/500
Unstrip recursion depth: 1/20
Unstrip post‐expand size: 3967470/5000000 bytes
Lua time usage: 4.076/10.000 seconds
Lua memory usage: 30676609/52428800 bytes
Number of Wikibase entities loaded: 1/500
Transclusion expansion time report (%,ms,calls,template)
100.00% 7371.790 1 -total
46.86% 3454.288 1 Template:Reflist
31.19% 2299.129 1 Template:2026_Iran_war_infobox
26.95% 1986.655 1 Template:2026_Iran_war_map
6.63% 488.624 154 Template:Cite_news
5.22% 384.566 6 Template:Excerpt
5.03% 370.889 131 Template:Cite_web
1.71% 125.821 34 Template:Efn
1.36% 100.603 3 Template:Sister_project
1.35% 99.768 3 Template:Side_box
The reflist, the war map, and the infobox are taking 70% of "post‐expand include size". 2K calls for a box looks a bit high. One citation per 14 words might be a bit too much. Selbstporträt (talk) 21:04, 24 June 2026 (UTC)

Invoke template

The invoke template is sometimes used to invoke (duh) citations instead of the conventional citation schemes.

Any reason why? Selbstporträt (talk) 23:20, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

If we didn't do that, the article would exceed the post-expand include size (PEIS) limit and some of the citation templates would not be transcluded. SuperPianoMan9167 (talk) 02:11, 23 June 2026 (UTC)
Thanks. Really not great to decide to bulldoze technical limits instead of cutting text that will be cut anyway. What is the highest number of citations a page can have?Selbstporträt (talk) 14:42, 23 June 2026 (UTC)
Scratching my itch, @PrimeHunter: led me to WP:NewPP limit report. Here is the current page's limit report:
NewPP limit report
Parsed by mw‐api‐ext.eqiad.main‐78f6f5fb5b‐8nmv2
Cached time: 20260624200807
Cache expiry: 14400
Cache expiry source: Module:Portal (os.date(%k))
Reduced expiry: true
Complications: [vary‐revision‐sha1, prevent‐selective‐update, vary‐revision, show‐toc]
CPU time usage: 6.805 seconds
Real time usage: 8.376 seconds
Preprocessor visited node count: 40647/1000000
Revision size: 437713/2097152 bytes
Post‐expand include size: 1746648/2097152 bytes
Template argument size: 29248/2097152 bytes
Highest expansion depth: 18/100
Expensive parser function count: 99/500
Unstrip recursion depth: 1/20
Unstrip post‐expand size: 3967470/5000000 bytes
Lua time usage: 4.076/10.000 seconds
Lua memory usage: 30676609/52428800 bytes
Number of Wikibase entities loaded: 1/500
Transclusion expansion time report (%,ms,calls,template)
100.00% 7371.790 1 -total
46.86% 3454.288 1 Template:Reflist
31.19% 2299.129 1 Template:2026_Iran_war_infobox
26.95% 1986.655 1 Template:2026_Iran_war_map
6.63% 488.624 154 Template:Cite_news
5.22% 384.566 6 Template:Excerpt
5.03% 370.889 131 Template:Cite_web
1.71% 125.821 34 Template:Efn
1.36% 100.603 3 Template:Sister_project
1.35% 99.768 3 Template:Side_box
The reflist, the war map, and the infobox are taking 70% of "post‐expand include size". 2K calls for a box looks a bit high. One citation per 14 words might be a bit too much. Selbstporträt (talk) 21:04, 24 June 2026 (UTC)

Result parameter does not follow MOS:VICTORY

So first of all, the current value for the result parameter in the infobox, "Disputed; negotiations ongoing", does not belong in this infobox, that's just invalid. That's not that hard to understand. See MOS:VICTORY. Plus, the current RfC is based on assuming the Iranian victory as the current status.

@Slava570 and @Harizotoh9, So, what's your take here? — Raihanur (talk) 13:24, 24 June 2026 (UTC)

MOS:VICTORY doesn't explicitly exclude "Disputed; negotiations ongoing." It doesn't say that the options listed there are exhaustively enumerated and no other options are acceptable. Having said that, it doesn't matter anyway. The status quo ante was "Ongoing," so you if you prefer that, I would be fine with it. What it says in the RfC blurb is irrelevant. That was written by a single individual and it does not reflect any consensus. Slava570 (talk) 13:37, 24 June 2026 (UTC)
"Ongoing" can't be a "result".
+ MOS:VICTORY explicitly says: "The infobox does not have the scope to reflect nuances, and should be restricted to "X victory" or "Inconclusive". Where the result does not accurately fit with these restrictions use "See aftermath" (or similar)." The only possible options are X victory, Inconclusive, See aftermath, or simply omitting the result parameter... — Raihanur (talk) 13:51, 24 June 2026 (UTC)
@MazurTutejszy You just reverted the infobox again , but you said it can say Status is ongoing. It should be changed to that per WP:ONUS, since that is the status quo. I would do it but I have already reverted once today. Can you please undo your revert and redo it to say that? We should all stop edit warring and leave in the status quo until the outcome of this RfC is known. Slava570 (talk) 16:29, 24 June 2026 (UTC)
Repeating the same policy shortcut without addressing counterarguments does not help build consensus. We cannot selectively apply WP:ONUS only when it benefits a specific POV. If achieving a consensus is required for labeling an 'Iranian victory,' the exact same standard applies for labeling it 'inconclusive' or omitting the parameter entirely. That is the core principle of ONUS. — Raihanur (talk) 16:58, 24 June 2026 (UTC)
I'm not saying to put in inconclusive or omit the parameter (I made a mistake with my previous revert. Sorry about that.). I'm saying it should say status ongoing, which is the status quo. Slava570 (talk) 17:01, 24 June 2026 (UTC)
For what it's worth, here is the current interpretation of what ONUS means.
ONUS, like CON in general, is not a reason—it's a process.
Otherwise it's too easy to stonewall, and the encyclopedia wasn't built that way. Selbstporträt (talk) 01:49, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
@Harizotoh9, you've done the same thing again without participating in the discussion. — Raihanur (talk) 07:22, 25 June 2026 (UTC)

Israeli and US support for the IRI during the Iran-Iraq War

Previous occasion no one replied, so I'm trying again. How is US support for Iraq during the Iran–Iraq War mentioned in the body of the article, while Israeli (and US) support for Iran during that same war is not mentioned at all? I'm talking about these articles basically:

Both were significant aspects of the conflict and are very much relevant. Omitting the latter presents a selective, one-sided account of the historical record. - LouisAragon (talk) 17:24, 20 June 2026 (UTC)

This article is an overview, not a lecture of the history of the Middle East. Grilledcheeseisgreat 19:08, 20 June 2026 (UTC)
I'm not against adding it - but the article is already super long and we need to keep things like that concise. Grilledcheeseisgreat 19:11, 20 June 2026 (UTC)
@Grilledcheeseisgreat:
  • "This article is an overview, not a lecture of the history of the Middle East."
I agree with that, but I don't think it justifies presenting only selected aspects of important events while omitting other vital ones. An overview should still provide a balanced summary. This wouldn't require a major expansion–just a brief mention.
The first sentence of the second paragraph currently reads: "During the Iran–Iraq War, the US supported Iraq." I'd suggest revising it to: "During the Iran–Iraq War, the United States supported Iraq, but also provided covert military aid to Iran through the Iran–Contra affair; Israel likewise supplied aid to Iran."
This keeps the sentence concise while reflecting the complexity of the period. Thoughts?
- LouisAragon (talk) 00:46, 26 June 2026 (UTC)
That sounds good. I think we should trim the background in general though before we add it though, because it wouldn't be good if someone reverted the edit over size concerns. Grilledcheeseisgreat 00:56, 26 June 2026 (UTC)
They're significant aspects of the Iran-Iraq war, but are they both (or either) significant aspects of this war, which is the subject of this page? Is Iran-Contra mentioned in any reliable sources that discuss the 2026 Iran war? In what way are these "vital" aspects of the background?
The US support is relevant because it tracks heightening Iran-US tensions leading to US attack on Iran's navy and the downing of Iran Air 655, both of which are mentioned in sources discussing the origins of the 2026 war. However, even the current text is likely too much detail for the summary style. BrechtBro (talk) 03:42, 26 June 2026 (UTC)

Moratorium proposal

How about we let this issue rest for 60 days, and avoid RfCs while it is all still up in the air. The MoU will expire by then and we'll know if the war is over or not. Editors have rushed into this, when there is no rush. It's better to be late and correct than early and wrong.

Q: Should there be a moratorium on the result/outcome discussion for two months (until 22 August 2026)? TurboSuperA+[talk] 09:38, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

I've been watching the above RfC evolve, and the AN discussion with interest. I would support a moratorium in principle, although I believe Placeholderer has already proposed opening a new 3 part RfC that would provide an option not to include a result parameter at this stage. This seems to have attracted some support over on the AN and they may be working on a draft RfC already. I would suggest mentioning this proposal over in that discussion too, so as to make sure there are not two concurrent proposals which could complicate matters more! Dfadden (talk) 12:17, 22 June 2026 (UTC)
@TurboSuperA+ I support both the 3-part RfC or a moratorium on changes for the time being. Leaning towards the latter right now. Javert2113 (Siarad.|¤) 14:46, 22 June 2026 (UTC)
The 3-part RfC would include a question on whether to have a moratorium. I think the current RfC should be closed somewhat promptly as "bad RfC" and this question should be addressed in the new RfC Placeholderer (talk) 15:58, 22 June 2026 (UTC)
I think the current RfC should be closed somewhat promptly as "bad RfC"
That is exactly how I !voted in the RfC. I also think we should revert to the long-standing version of "ongoing" and wait a bit. TurboSuperA+[talk] 16:59, 22 June 2026 (UTC)
I agree with changing it back to "ongoing." I agree with a moratorium as well, but I wonder if two months is too long. We have no idea how fast things might change in the near future. I would prefer one month or maybe even until August 1. Either way, if "ongoing" was the status quo ante, it should be reverted now pending the outcome of this RfC. Slava570 (talk) 18:14, 22 June 2026 (UTC)
  • Oppose - This really seems like a backdoor into voiding the results of the RfC, especially if it's going to be changed to "ongoing" without regard to the results of the RfC.--JasonMacker (talk) 19:52, 22 June 2026 (UTC)
    The policy per WP:ONUS is that it should be the status quo ante until the RfC decides on a new consensus. I just changed it to ongoing apparently at the same time as your comment here, but of course it's not without regard to the RfC, but pending the outcome. Slava570 (talk) 19:58, 22 June 2026 (UTC)
    That's simply inaccurate, and I have addressed this above:

    There was a discussion on the talk page, which is why the Status parameter got replaced with the Result parameter, in this edit back on 18 June 2026. Then, this RfC was started in 19 June, asking what the Result parameter should state. As should be obvious from what has happened in this discussion, there are a large number of editors that support keeping it as "Iranian victory" rather than changing it to "Inconclusive". So, the status quo of this RfC was that the result parameter stated Iranian victory. The "dispute" as to whether to even use the Result parameter began after the initiation of this RfC.

    The RfC was closed due to WP:AVALANCHE, but was reopened so as to stay open for longer, but let's not kid ourselves; we know how it will turn out. This idea that what will go in the infobox is still unknown or has failed to reach consensus is just a stalling tactic to delay the consensus reached by the majority of editors (which is due to the plethora of reliable sources affirming the majority consensus).--JasonMacker (talk) 14:55, 23 June 2026 (UTC)
    If you're going to accuse people of stalling, Jason, you better stop stonewalling.
    Show me your "plethora" of reliable sources. The ones I looked at don't mean what you make them mean. Selbstporträt (talk) 15:01, 23 June 2026 (UTC)
    Im am reading news reports in the last few minutes that Iran has attacked a merchant ship and in response Trump has just bombed coastal radar sites in Iran. That certainly doesnt sound like a war that is over... it is far WP:TOOSOON to declare a result. Dfadden (talk) 22:09, 26 June 2026 (UTC)
    But we do not "declare" a result, we summarize reliable sources. If reliable sources say the war is over (which they have, rather extensively, evidenced in the RfC discussion), the article should state the war is over, until reliable sources start saying otherwise. Anything else is original synthesis. BrechtBro (talk) 22:41, 26 June 2026 (UTC)


Background and prelude sections

I don't think we need to start our story with the coup d'état in 1953. The "Iran nuclear issue" (no idea what that means) section starts in 2003 when there is so much to say about events that happened in 2025. No idea why are we talking about "Israel nuclear issue". The current division breaks chronology. Readers have to read three concurrent timelines. It gets very confusing.

We want readers to get to the war at some point. No need for more than 1,3K words for a basic setup. Those who want more context can go read Rationale for the 2026 Iran war and Prelude to the 2026 Iran war. We cite other more general pages too.

The Background should be: a very cursory introduction to the issue (very cursory), an excerpt from the Rationale page, the Prelude excerpt (the last para should be omitted at least), and that's about it. Selbstporträt (talk) 06:07, 24 June 2026 (UTC)

These sections have been previously discussed at length. You may wish to discuss drastic changes and seek consensus prior to implementing them, and to search the talk archives. BrechtBro (talk) 15:45, 24 June 2026 (UTC)
I won't. Selbstporträt (talk) 15:51, 24 June 2026 (UTC)
You have provided no justification for the removal of these passage, which is well sourced and thoroughly discussed, which are easily found in a search of the talk page, other than that you don't like it and that you think it's too long. Starting at 2002 is entirely arbitrary and strips out all of the context up to that point, which there is established consensus on including in the article, including for NPOV reasons. There is no need to rehash this to satisfy you.
You may wish to review the WP:Contentious topics policies and talk page guidelines. The discussions justifying the inclusion of this material are easily found and I'm under no obligation to rehash. I'll ask that you self-rv your rv, @Selbstporträt, thanks. BrechtBro (talk) 16:25, 24 June 2026 (UTC)
I actually did, there and here. By contrast, your "seek consensus" and "you may wish to peruse the archives" are totally unresponsive. Unresponsiveness is against policy.
See WP:FETCH for more on the transaction I won't be playing with you. Selbstporträt (talk) 16:30, 24 June 2026 (UTC)
Your edit makes it appear that the origin of the war stems entirely the 2002 revelation of Iran's nuclear program, which is not only false, but a NPOV violation, as it essentially affirms the US-Israeli narrative. BrechtBro (talk) 17:15, 24 June 2026 (UTC)
Background information should certainly not be read as an origin story.
We can definitely cut the 2002 sentence. We could also cut the whole paragraph. This is not the place to lecture people about the Middle East. There are other pages for that. We have more than 10 subpages already. We are at 17K words, and most probably above 20K with the six excerpts. Sending edits more often than not hits the server limit.
The Rationale for the 2026 Iran war and the Regime change efforts in the 2026 Iran war are covered in the lead yet do not even appear in the page. So not only is the background section too long: it doesn't even cover what it's supposed to be covering. Selbstporträt (talk) 18:27, 24 June 2026 (UTC)
If you're referring to the hatnotes of the section, I would agree that those appear inappropriate for the section.
The purpose of the background section is to summarize the background of the conflict. According to reliable sources, that goes back to 1953. Can the section be shortened and better brought into summary style? Maybe! But removing entire grafs does not accomplish that. It's entirely in line with norms and not unusual for articles on wars, World War I#Background starts in 1848. BrechtBro (talk) 21:00, 24 June 2026 (UTC)
Thanks. I appreciate it.
1912 is nearer to 1848 than 2026 is to 1953, and we're talking about one of the two world wars we knew so far. There are three sources in that first paragraph. The Diplo piece mentions the 1979 hostage crisis. The second piece is Encyclopedia Britannica. Only the third one mentions 1953 is a News18 article. "The Long Road To US-Iran War" indeed!
So I'm not sure which sources you are relying on to suggest that the Iran war needs to be connected back to 1953. We could take 1979 as Hourcade provides the best analysis, but even then it's commentary: he uses the revolution to suggest that the collapse of the Islamic Republic was in the making from back then. In March, that could make sense. Now, I would rather wait that it does.
The second para has two citations for specific events. There is the Conversation that could do more work than it actually does. The rest is original research.
Then we reach 2002. The para contains an NYT timeline, a Monde piece about an assassination that is "too much information", the same News18 piece (we can't fight duplicates with invoke calls, which only makes citation overkill worse), and the same Conversation piece.
I am willing to grant that there are reliable sources for what we're saying, but what we got ain't it. Selbstporträt (talk) 21:29, 24 June 2026 (UTC)
That second graf, or at least most of it, was previously cited. There may be be better sources at this point, such as the Encyclopedia Britannica's entry on the war which traces background to 1953. Several sources do start their timeline at 79, but leaving out 53 presents a POV problem.
The section may go into too much detail for summary style, such as about the Iran-Iraq War, but there's a needle to thread with discussing not only Iran-US but also Iran-Israel relations and Iran's weapons programs. Imo the Iran Nuclear Issue subsection is the area that needs the most attention, not only with too much detail but with apparently unrelated, or at least tangential events, and an inappropriate update on inspections from this month, as if it's not background, ontop of some low quality writing (what's going on with that first graf?) that, as you've pointed out, breaks the chronology. BrechtBro (talk) 14:48, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
Good. Then let's thread that needle! My game plan is below. Selbstporträt (talk) 15:17, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
As was gone over in previous discussions of this material, the cursory introductions written by reliable sources at the start of the war (the Financial Times explainer comes to mind as one I personally read) largely began with the 1953 coup, as this is considered the start of modern US-Iran relations. The background section was entirely appropriate as-is, and I am sure there are other places where material can be cut. Monk of Monk Hall (talk) 20:57, 24 June 2026 (UTC)
Where's that FT explainer cited? There are 11 mentions of FT, all of them event-related. None of them seem to support the idea that we trace the war back to 1953. The NYT timeline indeed kicks things off there, but then that's just a timeline. No need to recite what readers can find at the Iran–United States relations page. At best the 1953 thing takes one sentence, and everything before 2022 is one paragraph.
If previous discussions missed this, then so much the worse for them. What I'm reading isn't quite relevant, sourcing is spotty, and it takes the space of what we are supposed to be talking about. We already have too much: either we compact information, or we cut. Just so we're sure: I'm not part of the V crew. I've dealt with them enough that we should not wait until one trawls through the page.
Anyone who understands status quo stonewalling would not handwave to old discussions right now. The page is so heavy it almost breaks the parser. I could make some blame runs if you insist, and I definitely don't like I feel like people don't WP:HEAR me. I'd rather not check. Let's keep talking instead. Selbstporträt (talk) 01:44, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
The sources in the article have changed greatly over the months, so I'm not surprised the FT piece isn't cited anymore. Let me take a look through my past activity and see if I can find it. Monk of Monk Hall (talk) 13:52, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
Found it @Selbstporträt:
According to the FT, incidents essential to the background of US-Iran relations in the context of the war include:
1. The 1953 coup and return of the Shah to power
2. The 1979 revolution and hostage crisis
3. The Iran-Iraq war
4. The downing of Flight 655 (I believe this was already excluded from the status quo background text for brevity)
5. The Obama-era nuclear deal
That seems about right to me. The background section existed as it did because the FT was not the only source that gave roughly this chronology as background to the conflict. Another set of articles with much of the same background info are the February and March articles from Le Monde Diplomatique: . These were originally in the article when the background section was written. Monk of Monk Hall (talk) 14:03, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
Thanks. Very useful. We could kick things off with our two timelines, presented as such, nothing deeper than that. Then the Diplo's pieces could buttress the convention, same as the Iran-US relations page. Citations could be useful over there too. In our case, it might be best to clean up what we have than to excerpt the lead from that page: it has been stretched a bit to make current events fit. Some of what we have might better served over there. The lead from this page would need love too.
The subsections on "nuclear issue" seem to work as dual narratives. If the story goes that Israel has nukes and so Iran wants nukes, then we should merge them. We should merge them even if that's contested, for now we have a subsection that has 6 paras next to one with only one. Good proportions for the whole Background section should be 3 subsections (US-Iran little history, the Nuke question, and Prelude) with 3-4 paras each, with 8-10 lines per para.
We should bear in mind that the page is actually twice the size the WP:AS patrol tolerate. If we delete one word out of three, it still will be have 14K words, assuming we're at 20K with the excerpts. More than 10K is fine, but more than 15K is not. The actual count matters less than the ballpark it gives us for the task at hand. I should be working a few hours every day on that. If there's an editorial line I'm crossing, just let me know through the edit. I'm not here to make any side look bad, things usually speak for themselves. The main objective is material: to solve the page issues; the reward is finding treasures. As long as we're moving forward and we remain faithful to the sources we have, anything goes as far as I'm concerned. Selbstporträt (talk) 14:58, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
"The lead from this page would need love too."
It's now under 400 words and it's more or less readable, so I consider it  Done for now.
That page contains a very big subsection with material that might of some use to us. This section should contain an excerpt from our lead. Will sift through the sources over there and act accordingly. Selbstporträt (talk) 16:43, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
I agree that merging the nuclear sections makes sense. Monk of Monk Hall (talk) 19:04, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
The last graf of the first Background section, beginning "In early 2026, Israeli prime minister" is prelude, not BG--less of a quick fix given the excerpting. The Iran nuclear issue section should also be reviewed for overlap w prelude. BrechtBro (talk) 17:04, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
Ditto the last two grafs of the Iran nuclear issue section ("In February 2026...") are not background and belong elsewhere. BrechtBro (talk) 17:13, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
Having looked further at the Iran nuclear issue section, some of this is off-topic and at best belongs in the prelude or rationale subpages, as it pertains to Iran's nuclear program and international relations in general, while the discussion of the impact of sanctions, etc, is more general background or about US-Iran relations than it is about anything nuclear, and there is not a neat dividing line between these two sub-topics that avoids repetition. To deal with the first, the tangential material be removed. For the latter, one solution could be to replace the topical subheadings be replaced with chronological subheadings (2018/JCPOA withdrawl is a good divider) and the text be incorporated chronologically, though this poses an additional challenge for discussing the Israeli nuclear context.
Perhaps this sentence from BG "Iran started a ballistic missile program to deter Iraqi missile attacks on Iranian cities and to compensate for its lack of a modern air force due to sanctions." could be integrated into a more clearly defined section on the weapons/nuclear issue that places less emphasis on chronologyBrechtBro (talk) 02:14, 26 June 2026 (UTC)
Prelude is part of Background. Background is not an introduction to an introduction. It's just an introduction. Selbstporträt (talk) 17:32, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
what do you mean its an introduction? the subject of that graf is part of the prelude, not the deeper background BrechtBro (talk) 21:56, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
I disagree that Prelude is or should be part of Background. Background refers to historical context, while prelude refers to the direct build to war, and this is a divison that exists in many articles on war BrechtBro (talk) 02:16, 26 June 2026 (UTC)
I don't mind that way of thinking. To me, a background section may contain anything that comes before the main dish. This is a page on the 2026 Iran war: everything that comes before that is introductory. Sometimes the division you presume exists, but it's often for specific reasons. Here are a few pages I checked, in various states but mostly readable:
Peloponnesian War only has a Prelude. This makes sense as there's not much to say before that.
Balkan wars has a Background and a Prelude to the second war section. This makes sense as we cover events in between two wars.
World War I has a Background and a Prelude section. Both section are roughly the same size, three subsections each. It's a big war, with a clean distinction between back and foreground.
Irak War only has a short Background section.
Iran–Iraq War has a Background section. As it currently stands, it is wayyy too long. The whole page is.
Battle of Verdun has a Background and a Prelude section. The biggest, baddest battle in history might deserve that. There is also a clear cut reason: it distinguishes the political events from the preparation to the battle.
Here's how I see it. Let's posit Prelude is an excerpt or a summary of the Prelude to the 2026 Iran war page. If Background and Prelude are two main sections, they need to be of similar size. That means we could reduce the Background to around 400-500 words. Three paras of 150 words each, give or take 50 words. It's feasible. Let's see what happens if we keep what we got. Our sections look like this: Hostilities - 8.5K; Excerpts - 3K (guesstimated at 6 x 500 words); others - 2.8K; Casualties and damages - 2K; Background - 1.2K; Direct impacts - 1.3K; Reactions - 1.3K; Economic impacts - 1.2K. Let's say we want to reach 15K. That should give us:
  • Hostilities - 6K
  • Others - 2K
  • Excerpts - 2K
  • Casualties and damages - 1.5K
  • Background - 1K
  • Direct impacts - 1K
  • Reactions - 1K
  • Economic impacts - 1K
These cuts would make us 500 words short. Let's brush it off as margin of error.
This assumes that we can cut 30% of the Hostilities section, 50% of the excerpts, and 25% of Casualties. As you can see, there's a trade-off between trying to cover everything and describing the events and their effects as thoroughly as we can.
Whatever we choose, we need to cut. Best would be to make use of all the children pages we got. I said there were 20 subpages earlier. It was quite an underestimate:
Template:2026 Iran war
This page has become a hub for more than a hundred pages! Selbstporträt (talk) 15:43, 26 June 2026 (UTC)
If Background and Prelude are two main sections, they need to be of similar size. Why? They don't need to be. BrechtBro (talk) 16:06, 26 June 2026 (UTC)
A large asymmetry between two introductory sections would indicate a lack of proportionality. If Prelude is much smaller, then it could be the first subsection of the Hostilities or the Background section. If Background is much smaller, then it's just weird.
We may wish to keep Prelude even if it's a very small main section because it's easier to access it through the table of contents, and because it's an excerpt. If Prelude does not say what we need it to say, then that's a problem to solve on the Prelude page itself. This leads to a coordination problem: our lead needs to reflect material on the page, material on the page depends on splits.
Sometimes, we juxtapose two ideas because they fit together. When one of the ideas is moved to a split, that reduces flow. This impacts two pages at once. Hence editors will tend to maintain the two ideas on the two pages. This works well until the two pages evolve and say two different things altogether.
When splits happen before the sections are well-proportioned, that effect gets even worse. We move stuff around just because there's too much of it, without realizing that some of what's moved is needed back. Selbstporträt (talk) 15:44, 27 June 2026 (UTC)

The war is continuing still.

The war seems to continue after Iran attacked British cargo vessel and USA just executed drone strikes on Iran. It would be better to consider the Iran war is inconclusive as there seems to not be an end to hostilities and it was to early to declare that the war was over. It would be wiser to state that the war has concluded after all peace negotiations have been complete as well as the implementation of the ceasefire being more "permanent". Yosef Caleb (talk) 21:46, 26 June 2026 (UTC) non-XC

I can't help but laugh at all the editors who were so eager to declare that the war was over and that we had a victor, and could cite a myriad of reputable sources. Next time, let's take it a little easier. Reliable sources come and go, but the situation is still very much volatile. (For anyone who thinks that it is not a big deal, consider this: For several days, we misled millions of readers.) Mikrobølgeovn (talk) 13:21, 27 June 2026 (UTC)
You might like this essay for next time you wish to laugh without contributing anything else. Selbstporträt (talk) 15:23, 27 June 2026 (UTC)
My contribution is to suggest that we ought to learn from all this. Mikrobølgeovn (talk) 16:02, 27 June 2026 (UTC)
That's not enough to take this page as a forum, and that "we" only includes yourself if "all the editors" does, which looks like a stretch. Selbstporträt (talk) 16:03, 27 June 2026 (UTC)
Wars end and restart all the time throughout history, nothing new. Noorullah (talk) 16:48, 27 June 2026 (UTC)
Note that this post is an ECP violation. BrechtBro (talk) 17:06, 27 June 2026 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 26 June 2026

In “ traveling on Air Force One to Texas, authorised Operation Epic Fury.” - wiki link Texas SanDiegoEsquw (talk) 12:39, 26 June 2026 (UTC)

 Done Day Creature (talk) 01:10, 28 June 2026 (UTC)

The war isn't over yet.

What are the criteria for being listed as an 'Other party' and why are these listed as a subsection of "Belligerents"

Edit request 7 July 2026: fix nonsense units of measurement

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 7 July 2026

And here we go again

ECP protection for this talk page

Blatant Violation of Wikipedia Policy

Edit request 9 July 2026

Diego Garcia

Why is the main image so different from those of other conflicts?

Not news

Motion to add Singapore to those who are attacked by Iran in infobox

Should CPFIK be added?

Edit request 11 July 2026

MOS:VICTORY

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 11 July 2026

Put Aerial in the heading

Khamenei message today

Updates to the article

Edit request 11 July 2026

Lead section

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 12 July 2026

Adding Territorial Changes to infobox

Edit request 13 July 2026

What part of NOT A NEWSPAPER do people not understand?

More not news

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 13 July 2026

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 13 July 2026 (2)

Related Articles

Wikiwand AI