Israel has been pushing to strike Iran for months, if not years. Signs this week that an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities was potentially imminent have ratcheted up fears of a regional conflict, particularly in light of the US withdrawal of some diplomatic staff and their dependents from Iraq and the wider region.US President Donald Trump’s comments have added to the sense that a military confrontation is coming, saying on Thursday that a strike “could very well happen”.
And yet, at the same time, Trump said that he would not call the strike imminent, and wanted to avoid a conflict.
Earlier in the week, Israeli media reported that Trump had also asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to dial down talk of a strike against Iran, adding to the sense that Trump himself wanted to avoid any conflict with Iran, especially as nuclear talks between Iran and the US are ongoing – with the next round set to take place on Sunday.
Whether an Israeli strike will take place in the short term is thus still unclear. Advertisement
“One way of looking at this is that it may be part of the larger picture,” Yossi Mekelberg, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House, said of the role the threat of unilateral action from Israel may play in US negotiations w …
