June 16, 2025 – June 22, 2025 | Vol.15, #23 | ISSN 3084-9330
Issue: On June 13, Israel conducted several pre-emptive strikes – under the code name ‘Operation Rising Lion’ – on key targets, military officials and nuclear scientists in locations in Iran, including Tehran, Kermanshah, Tabriz, Isfahan, Arak and at Iran’s nuclear facility in Natanz.[1][2]
Subsequently, Iran launched ‘Operation True Promise III’ and conducted retaliatory missile strikes on several Israeli targets in Tel Aviv-Yafo, Haifa, Dimona and Be’er-Sheva.[3][4]
On June 21, the U.S. launched ‘Operation Midnight Hammer’ and conducted precision strikes on nuclear and uranium enrichment facilities in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan in Iran.[5][6]
On June 23, Iran launched ‘Operation Annunciation of Victory’ and carried out missile strikes on U.S. military targets at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar and Ain al-Assad Base in Iraq.[7][[8]
Photo credits: Leo Correa/AP via NPR
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Analysis
Over the past week, the escalation of the Iran-Israel conflict received prominent attention in the Sinhala press, TV coverage and social media commentary (as observed through the social media monitoring tool Junkipedia).[1]
What are the prominent positions emerging on the conflict, and what are their underlying drivers?
Table 1 maps three camps emerging from the Sinhala media discourse on the Iran–Israel conflict and unpacks the underlying drivers reinforcing the positions advanced by each camp.
The positions advanced by Camps I and II were largely premised on polarised social media commentary. Camp I, by applying a moral lens, framed Israel negatively as the aggressor and Iran as the victim in the conflict. By contrast, Camp II adopted a lens of admiration to portray Israel positively as a model of success and power.
Outside of the social media commentary, Camp III emerged predominantly from mainstream print and TV coverage. These voices applied a pragmatic lens to focus on the potential negative economic ramifications that the escalating conflict could have on Sri Lanka.
[1] The MPA team monitored Facebook profiles, TikTok handles and YouTube channels using Junkipedia for the keywords Israel, Iran and war in Sinhala, from June 16 to 21, 2025.
To view this week’s news summaries, please click here.
To view this week’s social media data, please click here.
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